In a case mirroring claims that lend to a fine in the European Union in excess of $1 billion, the state of New York has filed an antitrust action alleging that Intel improperly monopolized the computer chip market by paying rebates to computer makers to keep them from dealing with Intel competitor AMD. The gist of the […]
Category Archives: EU News
EC Questions Airline Cooperation Agreement
October 27, 2009 – 12:25 pm
The European Commission has has issued a Statement of Objections to British Airways, American Airlines and Iberia, questioning their proposed cooperation on passenger air transport services on transatlantic routes.
IBM Under Investigation
October 15, 2009 – 1:11 pm
Various sources are reporting that the Department of Justice, Antitrust Division, is investigating IBM with respect to potential anticompetitive activities in the mainframe computer hardware and software markets. The European Commission is said to be consulting with the Division, but has not opened its own investigation.
EC Imposes Fines on Transformer Cartel
October 15, 2009 – 12:50 pm
The EC has imposed fines totally approximately $100 million on six European and Japanese power transformer producers for dividing markets from 1999 through 2003. The Commission found that the Japanese firms agreed not to sell transformers in Europe in exchange for the European firms agreement not to sell in Japan.
EC Investigating Drug Industry
October 15, 2009 – 12:47 pm
Reports have surfaced that the EC conducted raids of a number of unnamed drug companies.
European Court of Justice Orders EC to Consider Pro-Competitive Justifications for Limiting Parallel Trading
October 15, 2009 – 12:45 pm
The European Court of Justice has upheld a lower court’s reversal of a European Commission decision to prohibit Glaxo-SmithKline from restricting parallel trading of drugs among countries within the EU. Following a policy of open parallel trading the Commission rejected Glaxo-SmithKline’s attempt to sell a number of drugs into the Spanish market at lower prices, […]
EU High Court Rejects Appeal of Fines Imposed on Banking Cartel
October 15, 2009 – 12:09 pm
In Erste Bank et al. v. Commission of the European Communities, Europe’s highest court has rejected an appeal from four Austrian banks that sought a reduction of €160 million ($155 million) in fines that were imposed on them by European regulators over antitrust violations. The fines stemmed from an Austrian political party’s complaint lodged against […]
EC Imposes One Billion Euro Fine on Intel
October 6, 2009 – 1:50 pm
Update Oct. 2009: Intel has appealed the EC’s fine to the European Court of First Instance. Update Sept. 2009: The European Commission has published a non-confidential version of its May 13, 2009 Intel Decision that found that Intel violated Article 82 by excluding competitors from the market for computer chips. Update July 2009: Intel has appealed this fine to the […]
CFI Upholds Fines Against Chemical Cartel
October 1, 2009 – 2:09 pm
The European Court of First Instance has upheld European Commision’s imposition of antitrust fines against Dutch chemical group Akzo Nobel and French oil group Elf Aquitaine for illegally sharing markets and fixing prices. The CFI, however, reduced the fine imposed Hoechst, a German chemical firm, by 10 percent to €66.63m.
Dawn Raids on Spanish Cement Businesses
September 30, 2009 – 8:53 am
The European Commission inspected the premises of cement and related products businesses in Spain based on concerns about anticompetitive activity.