Antitrust & Trade Regulation

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Bob Connolly bob@reconnnollylaw.com On Tuesday, September 14, 2021, the Antitrust Division issued a press release announcing a joint statement with the Federal Trade Commission warning contractors and vendors not to take advantage of the situation created by Hurricane Ida and collude on prices.  See, Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission Issue Joint Statement to Preserve Competition in Post-Hurricane Relief Efforts. While noting that the antitrust laws allow procompetitive collaboration between competitors, the DOJ press release…
Our last article, New Brandeisians keep their promise, discussed the contents of Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s (D-MN) proposed overarching antitrust legislation, Competition and Antitrust Law Enforcement Reform Act (CALERA). Now, we’d like to take a step back and focus on the arguments supporting and opposing such reform, and in particular the precise manner in which the proposed legislation goes about such reform. We’d also like to highlight another antitrust statute proposed by Sen. Klobuchar, the…
On 20 July 2021, the UK government announced a consultation, titled “A new pro-competition regime for digital markets” (the Consultation), which proposes a number of radical changes that would introduce a new regulatory regime applying to the largest digital platforms operating in the UK. The proposals include formally establishing a Digital Markets Unit (DMU) within the Competition and Markets Authority, and the introduction of a new regime by which the DMU would designate…
Yesterday Law 360 reported that “The U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division has embarked on a round of heavy hiring to beef up the ranks of trial attorneys who will help litigate pending enforcement actions against the biggest players in the technology industry.” (here–subscription required). I looked online at www.usajobs.com and pulled up this posting[1]: The United States Department of Justice, Antitrust Division, is seeking highly qualified attorneys to serve as…
Bob Connolly  bob@reconnollylaw.com Acting Assistant Attorney General Richard Powers recently delivered (virtually) prepared remarks (here) covering several criminal enforcement topics including: Compliance; Deferred Prosecution Agreements and Engagement with Targets on Charging Decisions.[1] In his remarks about “Engagement With Targets on Charging Decisions” Mr. Powers explains that an individual about to be indicted may not receive notice via a target letter if the Division staff believes defense counsel has not been “interested in…