Charles River Associates International (CRA)

Charles River Associates (CRA) is a leading global consulting firm that offers economic, financial, and strategic expertise to major law firms, corporations, accounting firms, and governments around the world. Our experts bring a unique combination of cutting-edge research, state-of-the-art methods, and proven experience to bear on our clients’ most complex challenges. CRA specializes in management consulting and economic litigation. Our senior-led teams include leading academic experts and business leaders with experience across industries. Because of our proven skills in complex cases and exceptional strength in analytics, clients depend on our objective, fact-based advice for their high-profile, high-stakes matters. CRA was founded in 1965 by Jerry Kraft, John Kaler, and Alan Willens. The team initially worked out of a two-bedroom hotel suite in Cambridge, Massachusetts, adding rooms across the hall and on other floors as the firm grew. Their work was defined by a shared vision of providing objective, grounded expertise—evidence-based, client-focused, and fully defensible. That approach enabled CRA to grow into a trusted advisor to leaders in organizations across the world. Today, CRA includes a diverse team of 800+ consultants from 50+ countries. Our founders’ vision remains a core part of our DNA and guides our work with every client.

Review

Philip Marsden ChatGPT 4 (OpenAI): Philip Marsden interviews (rap style) ChatGPT about competition law, digital markets, privacy, ethics and enforcement practicalities

May 2023 5087

Interview conducted by Philip Marsden, Deputy Chair of the Bank of England and Professor of Law and Economics at the College of Europe, over 3 minutes on 9 May 2023. Answers were requested in the form of a brief rap. Interviewing ChatGPT on competition law, privacy, ethics, compliance, and (...)

Philip Marsden Handbook of Research in Trans-Atlantic Antitrust

May 2007 140

This section selects books on themes related to competition laws and economics. This compilation does not attempt to be exhaustive but rather a survey of themes important in the area. The survey usually covers publication over the last three months after publication of the latest issue of (...)

Federico Etro Competition, Innovation, and Antitrust: A Theory of Market Leaders and Its Policy Implications

December 2007 95

Federico Etro, Ioannis Kokkoris Competition Law and the Enforcement of Article 102

February 2011 57

Damien Geradin, Anne Layne-Farrar, Nicolas Petit EU Competition Law and Economics, Damien GERADIN, Anne LAYNE-FARRAR and Nicolas PETIT

September 2012 59

Katarzyna Czapracka, Martin d’Halluin, Oliver Latham Start-ups, European champions and unicorns for a digital sovereignty: What role for competition policy? (New Frontiers of Antitrust, 3 Nov. 2020)

February 2021 978

Contents: Reining in digital unicorns: Is Europe setting the rules for the world?, Dr Katarzyna Czapracka, Partner, White & Case, Brussels and Warsaw A few thoughts on privacy and competition, Martin d’Halluin, Senior Vice President, Global Competition Law & Policy Counsel, News (...)

Paula Farani De Azevedo Silveira, Paula de Andrade Baqueiro, Mor Bakhoum, Arsenio M. Balisacan, Luis Guilherme Ahlo Batista, Laurie Binge, Kevin E. Davis, Eleanor M. Fox, Gönenç Gürkaynak, Timothy T. Hughes, Helen Kean, Liberty Mncube, Marcio De Oliveira Jr, Leni Papa, George Paul, Daniel Rubinfeld, Pablo Trevisán Competition law and developing countries: Overarching themes from Africa, cartels and corruption, and mergers

May 2020 2479

In this edition we present an overarching view of competition law and developing countries, then pick up themes, such as cartels, corruption and mergers, from the “Antitrust and developing and emerging economies” annual Concurrences review Conference held on November 1st, 2019, at the New York (...)

David Tayar, Emmanuel Combe, Laurent Flochel Intellectual property and competitive behaviours in the pharmaceutical industry (Nasse Seminar - Paris, 9th November 2017)

February 2018 210

During the Nasse Seminar organized the 9th of November of 2017, David Taylar (lawyer ar Clifford Chance) and Laurent Flochel (economist, vice-president du cabinet Charles River Associate) talked about intellectual property and competitive behaviours in the pharmaceutical industry. This (...)

Alessandra Tonazzi, Elina Koustoumpardi, Mélanie Thill-Tayara, Raphaël De Coninck Recent developments in pharma antitrust

September 2017 1359

The authors of this On-Topic focus on the latest developments in the pharmaceutical sector. According to Ms Thill-Tayara, author of the first contribution and lawyer with Dechert Paris, if the competition agencies’ activism is partly motivated by the need to limit the expenses of national (...)

Etienne Pfister, Laurent Flochel, Maya Bacache-Beauvallet, Virginie Beaumeunier The reform of regulated professions (Nasse Seminar - Paris, 20th September 2016)

September 2016 111

During the Nasse Seminar organized the 20th of September of 2016, Virginie Beaumeunier (Deputy General Rapporteur of the Competition Authority), Maya Bacache (Professor of economics, Telecom ParisTech) and Laurent Flochel (economist, vice-president of Charles River Associates firm) talked ad (...)

Lars Wiethaus Do Internet users really pay with information about themselves?

December 2015 781

Competition policy practitioners are becoming increasingly suspicious about free of charge Internet services, notably search engines. It is argued that, in fact, services were not for free, but that users would pay with information about themselves, by giving up privacy. This suggests an (...)

Etienne Pfister, Raphaël De Coninck, Susan Hinchliffe Minority shareholdings and interlocking directorates

September 2013 1037

This set of contributions presents the various competitive effects associated with minority shareholdings. It also considers how these effects can be dealt with either through notifications to the competition authority, especially with the case of the German and British legislations, or (...)

Anne Perrot, Jérôme Philippe, Laurent Flochel Health sector (Nasse seminar - Paris, 16th December 2011)

May 2012 92

During the Seminar organized the 16th of December of 2011, Jérôme Philippe and Laurent Flochel talked about the health sector. The seminar was animed by Anne Perrot, vice-president of the Competition Authority. Created at the end of the 1980s within the Forecasting Department, the Philippe (...)

Emmanuel Micol, Laurent Flochel, Marina Gibbs, Olivier Fréget, Vincent Maillard The deployment of optic fiber network in France (Paris, 8 November 2011)

May 2012 654

The optic fiber is being deployed by using a large part of the civil engineering infrastructures (the ducts) built between 1965 and 1995. These infrastructures have been financed by the Administration des Postes and later by France Télécom within the framework of their successive monopolies, (...)

Eric Barbier de la Serre, Eric Morgan de Rivery, Laurent Flochel, Nadine Mouy Minority shareholdings and mergers

February 2012 1889

The Ryanair/Aer Lingus case has recently revived a debate regarding the need for an ex ante review by competition authorities of the acquisition of minority shareholdings. Indeed, the concept of "control", which is used by a majority of the competition authorities, is in essence an ill-suited (...)

Florence Ninane, Frederic Jenny, Laurent Flochel The economics of informations exchange

May 2011 2515

This set of three papers is derived from the training session on the information exchanges organised by Concurrences Review that has held on the 31th March 2011 in Paris. The first contribution written by Prof. Frederic Jenny, is dedicated to the definition of the fundamental notions. The (...)

Jorge Padilla, Olivier d’Ormesson, Raphaël De Coninck Quantifying damages in civil proceedings: Can economists and should competition authorities help? (New Frontiers of Antitrust Conference - Paris, 11 February 2011)

May 2011 2709

La deuxième table-ronde de la conférence New Frontiers of Antitrust du 11 février 2011 à Paris est dédiée à la quantification des dommages dans les procedures civiles. Raphael de Coninck, membre de l’équipe du chef économiste de la Commission européenne, présente dans la première contribution, (...)

Laurent Flochel Horizontal mergers : The UPP, GUPPI and IPR tests

February 2011 2650

This article presents the new unilateral effects tests in horizontal mergers which are intended to act as an initial filter to identify concentrations requiring closer scrutiny by the competition authorities. I. Introduction 1. The revision of the US Horizontal Merger Guidelines has given (...)

Catherine Prieto, Laurent Flochel, Peter Eberl, Thibaud Vergé Conference - Reform of vertical distribution - Roundtable I : A stronger economic analysis : Market power, efficiency gains... What changes for the new approach? (Paris, 27 May 2010)

September 2010 2729

This first roundtable of the conference “Reform of vertical distribution”, Paris, 27 may 2010, is dedicated to the role of economic analysis. The economists insist that the reform is a mere update of the vertical guidelines rather than a massive change with regard to economic analysis. It is (...)

David Sevy, Frank Verboven, Gunnar Niels, Raphaël De Coninck, Robin Noble, Theon van Dijk Competition damage evaluation: A short state-of-play

September 2010 2649

This mini-symposium takes stock of practical advances in competition damage evaluation. Combining perspectives from competition authorities, academics and practitioners respectively, it shows the existence of common principles and a set of widely accepted methods to calculate damages that may (...)

Anne Perrot, Anne Wachsmann, Laurent Flochel Efficiencies and pro-competitive arguments in mergers and unilateral practices

May 2010 5104

This three short papers summarize the main points of the training course Law & Economics held on March18th 2010 on “Efficiency gains and horizontal merger control” by Concurrences. The importance of considering efficiencies cannot be underestimated, as shown in the Guidance on the (...)

Laurent Flochel Short term costs and predatory pricing

February 2010 2759

This short article summarizes the main points of the training course Law & Economics on November 25th 2009 on “short term costs - Application to predatory prices”. I. Introduction 1. Predatory pricing tests are numerous and each adapted to a specific context and practice: predatory (...)

Raphaël De Coninck Estimating private antitrust damages

February 2010 2737

In light of the European Commission’s recent initiatives to bolster private antitrust enforcement, this paper discusses the general economic framework for damages estimation, reviews common empirical methods used by economic experts and highlights some of the practical challenges for (...)

Laurent Flochel Foreclosures test: A unified conceptual framework

September 2009 3426

This article presents in a unified conceptual framework the anticompetitive foreclosure tests. Such practices include predatory prices, margin squeezes, loyalty rebates or bundling and tying rebates. I. Introduction 1. Prediction testing is the subject of much academic and practical debate (...)

Andrea Amelio, Daniel Donath Market definition in recent EC merger investigations: The role of empirical analysis

September 2009 4462

Over the past few years, the Commission has increasingly used sophisticated tools for market definition purposes, and the use of empirical evidence is now common practice for market definition. Market definition is based on the SSNIP test that examines whether a hypothetical monopolist would (...)

Laurent Flochel Competition between firms part of a system good

February 2009 4557

This article examines competition between two firms offering all or part of a “system good” consisting of a combination of several complementary components. Such systems can be open, in the sense that they allow all components to be com-bined together, or instead closed. In the latter case, (...)

Brandon Mitchener, Claire Harris, Haines Terry, Jacques Lafitte, Philip Marsden, Robert McLeod, Stephen Kinsella OBE Lobbying competition law & policy ?

February 2009 7329

Parmi les praticiens du droit de la concurrence, la question revient souvent de savoir si le lobbying a un vrai rôle à jouer dans cette matière. Certains praticiens sont farouchement contre, d’autres l’ont accepté avec prudence, d’autres encore l’ont adopté sans hésitation. Cette série (...)

Laurent Flochel Structural merger remedies: An economic point of view

September 2008 5098

Within the framework of merger control, companies are often brought to propose or negotiate structural remedies to limit the potential anti-competitive effects of the operation. This article shows that economic theory analyzes the effects of such structural remedies in an opposite way (...)

Penelope Papandropoulos, Raphaël De Coninck The non-horizontal merger guidelines in practice

September 2008 5581

On the 28th of November 2007, the Commission adopted the Non-Horizontal Merger Guidelines. This article illustrates how these guidelines are applied in practice by reviewing the economic analysis undertaken in Google/DoubleClick and TomTom/TeleAtlas, two recent mergers that raised (...)

Laurent Flochel Margin squeeze: The CFI confirms the Commission decision to reject the complaint introduced by UFEX against La Poste and the French Government (Chronopost)

12 September 2007 4531

CFI, 12 September 2007, UFEX, DHL Express SAS, CRIE SA v. Commission, case T-60/05 The CFI dismissed the action brought by UFEX, DHL express and CRIE SA against a Commission decision not to pursue the examination of the complaint against La Poste and the French Government (SG-Greffe (2004) (...)

Laurent Flochel Electricity: The French Competition Council orders EDF to market base-load electricity to alternative suppliers in order to allow them to effectively compete with the incumbent operator’s retail sales on the free market (Direct Energie)

27 August 2007 4605

Conc. conc. dec. no. 07-MC-04 of 28 June 2007 relating to a request for precautionary measures from the company Direct Energie Rarely has the move to open up to competition gone so unnoticed, and it took the media intervention of the Competition Council to publicize the process. Since 1 July (...)

Laurent Flochel Exclusionary practices: The European Commission imposes a fine of € 151 million for over five years of unfair prices in the Spanish broadband market (Wanadoo Espana/Telefonica)

4 July 2007 5019

EC Commission, 4 July 2007, Telefonica S.A., Case COMP/38.784 The incumbent telecoms operator Telefonica has been fined by the Commission over €151 million for excluding its competitors from the market for high-speed internet access. Ironically, the complainant in the case is the Spanish (...)

Laurent Flochel Essential facility: The French Competition Council accepts the request for precautionary measures for abuse of dominant position due to the access conditions to a telecommunications essential facility (Solutel)

7 June 2007 4792

The company Solutel is involved in carrying out work on the private domain to connect users to the France Telecom network. Until now, France Telecom was the only company to offer this service. The customers are property developers and developers. The connection is made at a point on the (...)

Laurent Flochel Exit clause: The French Competition Council accepts the request for precautionary measures for abuse of dominant position due to the conditions of an exit clause (Emettel)

2 May 2007 4726

Conc. conc. dec. no. 07-MC-02 of May 2, 2007 relating to a request for precautionary measures presented by Emettel A few months before the opening of its market to competition, TDF had signed exclusive or quasi-exclusive contracts with its customers, the television channels, for a period of (...)

Anne Wachsmann, Charles Pommies, Laurent Flochel Predatory pricing: The French Competition Council imposes a heavy fine for predatory prices aimed at impending the growth of generic medicines in hospitals (GlaxoSmithKline)

14 March 2007 6916

Cons. conc. dec. no. 07-D-09 of 14 March 2007 relating to practices implemented by the GlaxoSmithKline France laboratory Two decisions, one French, the other Community, relating to predatory pricing, differ significantly on the criteria applied to classify predation practices (see (...)

Laurent Flochel Predatory pricing: The CFI confirms the fine imposed upon Wanadoo for predatory prices (Wanadoo-France telecom)

30 January 2007 7254

CFI, 30 January 2007, France Télécom SA (Formerly Wanadoo Interactive SA) v Commission, Case T-340/03 The CFI confirmed in all respects the Commission’s decision of July 2003 fining Wanadoo Interactive (Wanadoo) EUR 10.35 million for having charged prices below its average costs for (...)

Laurent Flochel Vehicle repair - Abuse of dominant position: The French Competition Council rejects the request for precautionary measures against Citroën (Autodistribution - Citroën)

20 September 2006 4856

Concordant Consent, Dec. 06-D-27 of 20 September 2006 relating to a request for precautionary measures presented by Autodistribution and AD Net against practices implemented by Automobiles Citroën. The Competition Council has rejected the request for protective measures made by (...)

Bulletin

Foreword

Philip Marsden UK Competition law & Digital markets: An overview of national case law

13 July 2023 597

What to say in an introduction to such a timely and comprehensive set of Concurrences updates of competition law developments in the UK - other than suggest very strongly, that you read them all. As with most jurisdictions, the enforcement agency - the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) - is the main actor. However, this past year has really been one of strong collaboration with concurrent regulations and government departments. The greatest cooperation with concurrent regulators is truly in the digital space, including a new Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum, bringing in telecoms, financial services and privacy concerns into a collaborative space. This foundation of cooperation among agencies bodes well for the bedding down and implementation of the eventual new ex ante pro-competitive regulation in the UK.

Raphaël De Coninck Excessive Prices: An overview of EU and national case law

21 June 2018 2672

One fundamental difference between the European and American approaches to unilateral conduct relates to the treatment of exploitative conduct, including excessive prices. While the mere charging of monopoly prices is not unlawful under US antitrust law, which recognizes high prices as an important element of the free-market system that rewards innovation, exploitative practices by a dominant company are in principle considered abusive under EU law, even if the exploitative conduct is not accompanied by other anticompetitive practices.

Lars Wiethaus, Rainer Nitsche Margin squeeze: An overview of EU and national case law

15 April 2014 1326

This article has been nominated for the 2015 Antitrust Writing Awards. Click here to learn more about the Antitrust Writing Awards. 1. Introduction Formally, a margin squeeze occurs if a dominant provider in the (upstream) input market sets its wholesale price (too high) and retail prices (...)

Austria

Benno Buehler, Luca Aguzzoni, Luca Di Martile The EU Commission analyzes two national telecom merger cases, and finds an associated increase in prices in the Netherlands case, but not in the Austria case (T-Mobile / Orange), (T-Mobile / tele.ring)

15 December 2015 153

Ex post analysis of two mobile telecom mergers: T-Mobile/tele.ring in Austria and T-Mobile/Orange in the Netherlands* In a nutshell: Ex post evaluation of merger decisions is a valuable tool for improving the understanding of markets and to assess merger control policy. To provide reliable (...)

Brazil

Marcio De Oliveira Jr, Fernando Meneguin The Brazilian Competition Authority issues an interim decision on exclusivity agreements in the market for gyms (Gympass / Totalpass)

23 February 2022 74

Introduction. In 2020, the wellness platform Totalpass filed a complaint before the Brazilian antitrust authority (CADE) claiming that a competitor, Gympass, had imposed exclusivity agreements to more than 80% of the gyms in Brazil, which hindered the entry of new competitors and maintained (...)

Canada

Andy Baziliauskas, Frank Mathewson The Canadian Competition Tribunal dismisses allegations due to a refusal to deal under the amended Section 75 of the Competition Act (B-Filer / The Bank of Nova Scotia)

20 December 2006 166

Tribunal Dismisses B-Filer’s Refusal to Deal Application* On December 20, 2006, the Competition Tribunal released its decision in B-Filer Inc. v. The Bank of Nova Scotia, the first fully contested case under the amended Section 75 of the Competition Act and the first contested case brought (...)

European Union

Daniel Donath, Robert Stillman, Uğur Akgün The EU Commission concludes that the merger of a financial trading platform and a financial data provider will lead to an incentive to raise rival costs due to its dominance on the market if conditions are not met (Refinitiv / London Stock Exchange Group)

26 February 2021 216

LSEG/Refinitiv: Modelling of efficiencies in non-horizontal mergers* The Commission’s non-horizontal merger guidelines acknowledge that vertical mergers provide substantial scope for efficiencies but also outline an efficiencies assessment based on the framework developed in horizontal (...)

Ian Small, Simon Chisholm The EU General Court annuls the Commission’s decision to prohibit a merger in the International express package delivery sector (UPS / TNT)

7 March 2017 211

The General Court annulled on 7 March 2017 the European Commission’s decision in 2013 to prohibit UPS’ proposed acquisition of TNT. The judgment was much awaited also because of its potential for clarifying the role of efficiencies in merger review. In practice, the Court overturned the (...)

Damien Neven, Hans Zenger, Raphaël De Coninck The EU Commission develops a novel theory of harm based on the effect of the transaction on the bargaining power of the new entity (Universal Music Group / EMI Music)

21 September 2012 269

This article has been nominated for the 2014 Antitrust Writing Awards. Click here to learn more about the Antitrust Writing Awards. Mergers and bargaining power: back to the future? Insights from the Universal/EMI merger* The decision to approve the acquisition of EMI’s recorded music (...)

Augustijn Van Haasteren, Cyril Hariton, Krisztian Kecsmar, Pablo Asbo, Polyvios Panayides, Raphaël De Coninck The EU Commission approves, subject to conditions, an acquisition in the Belgian electricity market (EDF / Segebel)

12 November 2009 1329

EDF/Segebel (SPE) - More power to boost competition in Belgian energy markets* I. Introduction In September 2009, the Commission received a notification of a proposed concentration whereby Electricité de France («EDF») would acquire from Centrica, a UK energy company, a 100% stake in (...)

Miriam Driessen-Reilly, Polyvios Panayides, Raphaël De Coninck The EU Commission accepts, subject to conditions, a takeover of a company in the electricity sector (EDF / British Energy)

22 December 2008 199

I. Introduction On 24 September 2008, following ongoing talks with British Energy, EdF announced that it had agreed a takeover of the company for the sum of £12.5 billion. On 3 November 2008, given that the transaction had a Community dimension within the meaning of the Merger Regulation, (...)

Cyril Hariton, Dag Johansson, Daniel Donath, Elzbieta Glowicka, Jérôme Cloarec, Philippe Redondo The EU Commission conditionally approves a merger in the retail fuel sector using customer surveys and econometric studies to assess the likelihood of anticompetitive effects (StatoilHydro / ConocoPhillips)

21 October 2008 1225

Fuel for thought - StatoilHydro/ConocoPhillips (Jet)* I. Introduction When faced with a proposed merger, antitrust authorities have to assess the likelihood and the magnitude of anticompetitive effects that may occur following the removal of one of the merging parties as an independent (...)

Germany

Lars Wiethaus The German Competition Authority rules against market division and information exchange in the sand-lime brick sector (KS-Quadro)

14 February 2008 2623

Summary On 14 February 2008 the Bundeskartellamt upheld an earlier decision ruling against market division and information exchange of German sand-lime brick producers. In its earlier decision, July 2003, the Bundeskartellamt prohibited a license system according to which licensees were (...)

Philip Kalmus The German Competition Authority holds that risk pooling by insurance companies for insuring liability risks of auditing firms violates Art. 81 EC but excludes insurance for "Big 4" (Allianz - Axa - R+V - Ergo)

10 August 2007 3643

Summary Four large insurance companies active in the German market (Allianz, Axa, R+V and Ergo) had operated a joint venture for the purpose of insuring liability risks of auditing firms. The joint venture goes back to a state sponsored company founded in the 1930s, which the members of the (...)

Philip Kalmus The German Federal High Court clears the de minimis condition of merger control (Deutsche Bahn / KVS Saarlouis)

11 July 2006 6317

Summary The Bundesgerichtshof (Federal High Court) decided in the context of an appeal against a blocked merger between the local transport arm of Deutsche Bahn and regional transport company KVS, which operates in the Saar Region. The parties appealed against the Bundeskartellamt (Federal (...)

Philip Kalmus The German Federal Court of Justice asks lower Court to verify computation of electricity network access price in retrial (Strom II plus)

7 February 2006 4760

Federal Court Decision Until 2005, Germany’s electricity sector was privatised but unregulated. Instead, electricity companies with networks agreed voluntarily to set access prices on the basis of a voluntary framework agreement called “Strom II plus” (“Power II plus"). The plaintiff is an (...)

Philip Kalmus The German Federal Cartel Office fines € 20 M a cartel of insurance companies (Sparkassen)

15 September 2005 4213

The German Bundeskartellamt has fined seven insurance companies, subsidiaries of savings banks, a total of € 20 M for cartel offenses. The seven insurance companies are subsidiaries of savings banks. They are: Versicherungskammer Bayern, München SV Sparkassen Versicherung Gebäudeversicherung (...)

United Kingdom

Philip Marsden UK Competition law & Digital markets: An overview of national case law

13 July 2023 597

Oliver Latham, Uğur Akgün The UK Competition Authority clears the acquisition of a minority shareholding and certain rights in a food delivery company in its first application of the “failing firm” defence (Amazon / Deliveroo)

4 August 2020 787

On 4 August 2020 the CMA cleared Amazon’s proposed minority investment in Deliveroo. Having previously been concerned that the investment could damage competition by discouraging Amazon from re-entering restaurant food delivery in the UK and altering its competitive incentives in respect of (...)

Oliver Latham, Simon Chisholm, Samuel Lynch The UK Competition Authority clears the takeover of a mobile payments company after conducting an in-depth Phase 2 probe (PayPal / iZettle)

12 June 2019 549

Acquisitions of Potential Rivals in Digital/Tech: Valuation Analysis as Key Economic Too - PayPal/iZettle Antitrust authorities everywhere are increasingly concerned with so-called “killer acquisitions” – cases where an established incumbent buys up a small rival which might have the (...)

Ian Small, Simon Chisholm The UK Competition Appeals Tribunal upholds a decision to prohibit a merger in the energy and commodities trading sector (Intercontinental Exchange / Trayport)

6 March 2017 291

The CAT upheld on 6 March 2017 the CMA’s decision to prohibit ICE’s acquisition of the energy and commodities trading platform Trayport. The CMA’s original decision found that ICE could use ownership of Trayport to foreclose competitors, shifting liquidity to its own exchanges. It was the (...)

Cristina Caffarra, Jenny Haydock, Matthew Bennett, Oliver Latham The UK Office of Fair Trading takes the view that bilateral communications of retail prices between manufacturers and retailers are problematic (Sports Bras)

13 June 2014 202

When do retail price communications between retailers and manufacturers become RPM?* Introduction Commercial negotiations between manufacturers and retailers necessarily involve a discussion of wholesale prices, but they may also involve a discussion of potential retail prices, including (...)

Geoff Edwards, Mike Walker The UK OFCOM dismisses the case in pricing wholesale calls and distinguishes between technical margin squeeze and abuse of dominance (Thus / Gama Telecom / BT)

20 June 2013 200

When is a margin squeeze not an abuse?* On 20 June 2013 Ofcom closed its long-running investigation of BT’s pricing of its Wholesale Calls product with a “no grounds for action” decision. The investigation, which commenced in August 2008, focused on allegations of margin squeeze made by (...)

Alan Overd The UK Competition Authority formally clears the acquisition in the frozen ready meal businenss as customers were found to have shifted significant volumes to alternative suppliers following the completed acquisition (The Kerry / Headland)

2 December 2011 84

This article is the winner of the 2013 Antitrust Writing Awards, Business Category, Economics section. Sponsored Entry* Some mergers materially reduce the choice of suppliers available to customers. When this happens, how much weight should competition authorities give to the potential (...)

Alan Overd The UK Competition Authority clears merger in the multilateral trading facilities sector concluding that sponsored entry’s strong threat would disincentivize the merged firm from raising prices (BATS / Chi-X)

24 November 2011 112

United States of America

Matthew P. List, Andrew Dick, Peter Boberg The US FTC and DoJ issue draft Merger Guidelines and redraw the thresholds for determining whether a merger should be presumed anticompetitive

19 July 2023 118

On July 19, 2023, the US Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission (collectively, the Agencies) released a draft revision of the US Merger Guidelines (draft 2023 Guidelines). The draft includes 13 guidelines describing how the Agencies propose to assess mergers for anticompetitive (...)

Fei Deng, Mario Lopez The US District Court of California uses an economic approach to determine FRAND royalty rates (TCL / Ericsson)

21 December 2017 290

On November 8, 2017, Judge James Selna of the US District Court in the Central District of California issued a decision (published later on December 21st) in TCL v. Ericsson determining fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) royalty rates for Ericsson’s standard essential patent (...)

George Hay The US FTC finds that a manufacturer of domestic pipe fittings has unlawfully monopolized that market based on its exclusive dealing arrangements with key distributors (McWane)

6 February 2014 124

In February 2014, the Federal Trade Commission issued its Opinion against McWane, Inc., the industry leader in the U.S. market for small and medium diameter ductile iron pipe fittings (“fittings”). Such fittings join together pipes and help direct the flow of pressurized water in pipeline (...)

Matthew P. List, Monica Noether, Sean May The US Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is entering into force and affecting the numbers of market entrants into different States’ health insurance markets

1 January 2014 235

This article has been nominated for the 2014 Antitrust Writing Awards. Click here to learn more about the Antitrust Writing Awards. The health insurance exchange landscape* Background A central feature of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) is the establishment of (...)

George Hay A U.S. Court of Appeal dismisses claims of monopolization against leading software company based on an alleged refusal to deal (Microsoft)

23 September 2013 188

In the antitrust equivalent of Jarndyce v Jarndyce from Charles Dickens’ Bleak House, the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit dismissed Novell’s appeal of Novell of the District Court’s decision to enter judgment as a matter of law for the defendant in Novell’s long-standing (...)

George Hay The US Supreme Court denies defendants’ petition for certiorari concerning a decision of the Third Circuit raising significant issues as to how a court should analyze “market share discounts” by a dominant firm (ZF Meritor / Eaton)

29 April 2013 420

On April 29, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court denied defendant’s petition for certiorari with respect to the Third Circuit’s 2012 decision in ZF Meritor LLC v. Eaton Corp. (696 F.3d 254). Since the case raised significant issues as to how a court should analyze “market share discounts” by a (...)

George Hay The Federal District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma dismisses claims of monopolization against a supplier of drilling fluids based on an alleged refusal to deal (M-I)

4 March 2013 314

On March 4, 2013, a federal district court in Oklahoma dismissed monopolization claims brought by TKO Energy Services (TKO) against M-I and its affiliated companies (TKO Energy Services LLC v. M-I LLC, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Oklahoma, 4:12-cv-00108-GKF-PJC 2013). Since this (...)

George Hay The US District Court for the District of Columbia dismisses claims of “shared monopoly” against two companies in the market for rail freight transportation services (Union Pacific / BNSF)

26 February 2013 286

On February 26, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia granted defendants’ motion to dismiss Section 1 and Section 2 claims against Union Pacific Railroad Company ("UP") and BNSF Railway Company ("BNSF"). (Oxbow Carbon & Minerals LLC, et. al., v. Union Pacific (...)

John R. Woodbury, Serge X. Moresi, Steven C. Salop The US Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission release new Horizontal Merger Guidelines which include what amounts to a "gross upward pricing pressure index" (GUPPI)

19 August 2010 89

Scoring Unilateral Effects with the GUPPI: The Approach of the New Horizontal Merger Guidelines* The US Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission released the 2010 Horizontal Merger Guidelines on August 19, 2010. This note explains the approach set out in the 2010 Merger (...)

Andrew Tepperman The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) makes it possible for incremental pharmaceutical innovation to foreclose generic competitors and thereby cause antitrust concerns

24 April 2009 159

Incremental pharmaceutical innovation and antitrust concerns* Many pharmaceutical innovations are improvements on existing drug therapies as opposed to entirely new molecular or biologic entities. Such “incremental innovation” has been at the center of a range of legal disputes in the (...)

Events

8 Jun 2023 Paris Digital Antitrust : How to Regulate ? See documents

23 May 2023 Londres 2023 International Mergers Conference See documents

18 Apr 2023 Paris Private Enforcement in the EU See documents

24 Jan 2023 Online Global Cartel Enforcement Trends Webinar See documents

2 Dec 2022 Paris 10th Global Merger Control Conference See documents

22 Sep 2022 Brussels Global Antitrust Hot Topics EU, US & Global Perspectives See documents

21 Jun 2022 Paris New Frontiers of Antitrust See documents

25 May 2022 Online Non-poaching agreements: A new legal battlefield for antitrust in the EU & US labor markets See documents

21 Apr 2022 London Innovation Economics Conference for Antitrust Lawyers See documents

30 Mar 2022 Paris Private Enforcement in the EU: 2022 State of play See documents

14 Feb 2022 Webinar Sanctions: EU, France, Germany What’s new? See documents

3 Dec 2021 Paris & Online 9th Global Merger Control Conference See documents

19 Nov 2021 Webinar Global Antitrust Economics #4 Standard-Essential Patents: How Should Courts Deal with SEPs? See documents

17 Nov 2021 Webinar Global Antitrust Economics #2 App Stores: What Rules for the Gatekeepers? See documents

4 Oct 2021 Paris Distribution & Retail - 2nd edition See documents

15 Jun 2021 Webinar IP & Antitrust - #1 The value of IP: FRAND licensing of SEPs See documents

21 May 2021 Webinar Excessive prices in the pharmaceutical sector in the EU: The Aspen Decision See documents

13 Apr 2021 Webinar Antitrust in the Financial Sector #2 Current International Issues in the Financial Sector See documents

2 Dec 2020 Webinar 8th Global Merger Control Conference #1 Joint interview with Isabelle de Silva & The ECJ Three/O2 ruling: Everything changed? See documents

3 Nov 2020 Webinar 11th New Frontiers of Antitrust Conference #1 Opening keynote speech & Digital sovereignty See documents

30 Oct 2020 Online Antitrust and Developing Economies in an Era of Crises - Webinar #3 : Gouging, Opportunism, Access, Industrial Policy, and the Challenge to First Principles of Competition See documents