In In Re: Municipal Derivatives Antitrust Litigation, Southern District of New York Judge Victor Marrero tossed out claims against 34 of the nation’s largest financial institutions accused of fixing prices of municipal derivatives in multidistrict litigation brought by over a dozen municipalities. The Court ruled that plaintiffs did not provide sufficient evidence for their allegations of […]
Category Archives: Antitrust Division Action
DOJ Proposes Settlement with SC Realtors
May 8, 2009 – 1:42 pm
In May 2008, the DOJ sued the Consolidated Multiple Listing Service of Columbia, S.C., alleging that the operators of the service violated Section 1 of the Sherman Act by 1) requiring applicants for membership to discuss the nature of their businesses with a committee of incumbent members who had the power to deny membership to […]
DOJ Confirms Investigation of Blood Reagent Industry
April 27, 2009 – 3:28 pm
A DOJ Antitrust Division spokesperson confirmed that the Division had opened the investigation. According to published reports, Immunological diagnostic medical device manufacturer Immucor confirmed receiving a subpoena.
Criminal Big Rigging Case Filed Against Refuse Cart Repair Company Executives
April 27, 2009 – 2:39 pm
In U.S. v. Steven Fenzl and Douglas Ritter, a Northern Disctrict of Illinois grand jury indicted two executives from an Illinois garbage cart repair company on charges of conspiracy, mail fraid and wire fraud for conspiring to rig the city of Chicago’s competitive bidding process that enlists private companies to fix roll-out refuse carts. DOJ […]
Liquid Crystal Display Screen Producers Plead Guilty to Price Fixing
April 26, 2009 – 7:52 pm
Update April 2009: An LG executive has agreed to plead guilty, serve a 1 year prison sentence, and pay a $30,000 fine for his role in the LCD cartel. Update March 2009: Hitachi has agreed to pay a $31 million fine and cooperate in the investigation. LG, Sharp, and Chunghwa Picture Tubes all pled guilty […]
DOJ Enforcement Fines Up & Focus Intense
April 20, 2009 – 6:54 pm
Any thought that the financial crisis might lead to lax antitrust enforcement appears to have been quashed by recent DOJ activity. The Antitrust Division has collected nearly $1 Billion in criminal fines in the first four months of 2009, one of the highest totals ever. And in 2008, the average prison sentence for American offenders […]
DOJ to Investigate Ticketmaster/Live Nation Merger
February 12, 2009 – 5:40 pm
Not surprisingly, the Antitrust Division announced that it would investigate the proposed merger between the ticket selling giant and the concern promoter that had begun selling tickets of its own. Artist Bruce Springsteen and several senators from both parties expressed concerns about the proposed merger.
DOJ & EC Approve Sun Microsystems/Oracle Merger
February 1, 2009 – 1:45 pm
Update January 2010: The EC agreed to let the merger move forward without conditions. Update November 2009: The EC issued a statement of objections to the merger expressing concern over the fate of Sun’s open source database. The DOJ reiterated its position that sufficient competitive threats existed in the market to prevent anticompetitive effects from […]
DOJ Requires Divesitures in Waste Management Merger
January 4, 2009 – 4:00 pm
The DOJ has settled a challenge to the Republic Services/Allied Waste merger, requiring divestiture of a number of routes, transfer stations and land fills. The merger joins the second and third largest waste management firms in the US.
Google/Yahoo The Deal’s Off
November 8, 2008 – 2:23 pm
Update: The deal is off the table. Rather than face an antitrust battle, Google has pulled out. After stating that they would not delay implementation of their advertising deal beyond a contractually agreed October 11 deadline, the the European Commission’s announcement that it had opended in investigation has apparently led Google and Yahoo reconsider. Both […]