The US Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division recently issued a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) to Florida Cancer Specialists & Research Institute (FCS), an oncology center in Florida. FCS admitted to allocating medical and radiation oncology treatments provided to cancer patients in Southwest Florida. In addition, FCS had to pay a $100 million monetary penalty, the statutory maximum. This resolution raises two key issues the DOJ Antitrust Division has been focusing on over the last few years:…

The General Court has annulled the European Commission’s decision of May 11, 2016, in which it blocked the proposed acquisition of Telefonica UK (O2) by Hutchison 3G UK (Three). The General Court found that the Commission failed to prove that the merged company would harm competition or raise prices and that it had made several errors of law and assessment in its review. While the ruling will be welcomed by the telecoms industry that continues…

On June 2, 2020, the European Commission opened a public consultation to seek views on the contents of the Digital Services Act (DSA), an ambitious legislative package intended to regulate digital markets in EU. The European Commission will be seeking feedback from a wide range of stakeholders on issues like online safety, freedom of expression, fairness, and a level playing field in the digital economy. Part of the proposed legislative package also includes a proposal…

Competition law is a powerful tool that businesses can employ to recover from a crisis. Join members of Steptoe’s EU Competition team for a series of short On Demand videos that will help guide your business through the economic uncertainty post-COVID-19. Click here to access the first video. Part I – Routes to Market in the New-Normal: A Twist of the Competition Law Kaleidoscope In this first video, Paul Hughes provides an overview of the potential…

The CMA has provided guidance on its expected approach to merger assessments during the Covid-19 pandemic. While the timescales and substantive assessment of a merger’s effects on competition remain unchanged, the CMA has made a number of adjustments to its working arrangements in order to meet deadlines and progress cases. However, it is likely that some aspects of investigations may be subject to some delay.…

In a series of recent statements, the UK Financial Conduct Authority  (FCA) has set out how it expects the insurance industry to help consumers and businesses affected by the coronavirus. The FCA would like to see a degree of consistency across the industry in how business interruption claims are handled. To help to achieve such consistency, the FCA is planning to ask the English court to make declarations about the scope of various business interruption…

On Monday April 13, 2020, DOJ and the FTC issued a joint statement warning employers that COVID-19 does not provide a reason to tolerate anticompetitive conduct that harms workers. The agencies said that they are on alert for collusion and other anticompetitive conduct in labor markets during the crisis. They are focused on agreements to lower wages or to reduce salaries or hours worked, especially in frontline fields like health care and for workers in…