Antitrust & Trade Regulation

Below is a guest post by Dr. Ai Deng, PhD who writes often about issues related to price fixing cartels.  Dr. Deng is at NERA Economic Consultants, and can be reached at ai.deng@nera.com or connect with him on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/aideng/) ********************************************************************* In a recent post, Bob shared his thoughts on the latest DOJ policy that could give credit to companies for their effective antitrust compliance programs.  In this post, I want to…
As I mentioned in my post yesterday (here), the Division’s new policy on incentivizing compliance programs comes after years of lobbying by many in the defense bar and corporate compliance community.  Two of the leading advocates of this change are Ted Banks (Scharf Banks Marmor LLC) and Joe Murphy (Compliance Strategists).  I received a comment from Mr. Banks yesterday, joined in by Mr. Murphy.  With their permission, I am posting their thoughtful remarks: Bob –…
There has been a great deal of publicity surrounding the Antitrust Division’s recent announcement that a corporation involved in a criminal antitrust violation may get credit for an antitrust compliance program if certain conditions are met.  The credit may include a DPA (Deferred Prosecution Agreement: the government reaches a plea agreement with the defendant; files criminal charges in an Information;  and defers the entry of the guilty plea for a period of time.   If the…
      On July 24, 2019 Senators Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), reintroduced legislation to extend whistleblower protection for employees who provide information to the Department of Justice related to criminal antitrust violations. From the Press Release:             “Violations of our antitrust laws hurt consumers, often in the form of less choice and higher prices. Without the help of industry whistleblowers, these sorts of violations often fly under the radar. This legislation incentivizes…
The Antitrust Section of the American Bar Association is hosting an August 1, 2019 teleconference on the Antitrust Divisions new policy on Incentivizing Antitrust Compliance Programs.  Below is an ABA description of the program and I’ve provided a link if you care to register. Wind of Change: The Antitrust Division’s New Guidance for Evaluating Compliance Programs in Criminal Cases 12 PM EDT   August 1, 2019 Recently the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division reversed…
This major news has been extensively covered but in case you missed it: On July 11, 2019, Makan Delrahim announced a major reversal in the Antitrust Division’s treatment of Corporate antitrust compliance programs.  In a speech titled “Wind of Change: A New Model for Incentivizing Antitrust Compliance Programs,” Delrahim stated: “effective immediately, the Antitrust Division will: (1) change its approach to crediting compliance at the charging stage; (2) clarify its approach to evaluating…
ICAP’s successful appeal against the EU Commission’s €14.96 million fine for facilitating banks in influencing the LIBOR/TIBOR rates is hugely significant and signals a significant set back for the EU competition authority. The case was complicated and unusual from the start, the European Court of Justice clarified the level of detail required in a decision when issuing a fine for a breach of competition law. Nonetheless, the ICAP saga has serious consequences for companies acting…
On 19 June 2019, our Paris office organized a client seminar on the topic: “Insight into competition and regulatory authorities’ investigations in France”. Our Paris competition partners Natasha Tardif and Marc Lévy spoke alongside in-house counsel Amandine Jacquemot, senior legal advisor at EDF, before a fully packed room composed of Paris contacts and clients. Natasha and Marc discussed strategies and measures to adopt when facing requests for information, dawn raids and investigations led by competition…
The recently proposed Sainsbury’s/Asda merger would have combined the second- and third-largest UK supermarkets. The merger would also have created the largest retailer of fuel by volume in the UK. The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) decided to step in and concluded that the prohibition of the merger was the only way to go. Most importantly, however, is the 10-year ban imposed by the CMA on the parties’ attempting a similar deal in the future.…
A commonly held view is that merger control filings are not relevant for minority investments. On Friday, 5 July 2019, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced that it had issued an order to hold separate to Amazon.com Inc and Roofoods Ltd (trading as Deliveroo). We understand that Amazon had made an investment for a minority of shares in Roofoods (though the exact size of Amazon’s stake has not been revealed). The UK has…