If you missed the Trade Association Antitrust 101 webinar, you can view the recording here.  We also have a number of upcoming webinars you may also find of interest: Tomorrow, Tuesday, July 21 Not Normal: the Challenges of a Changed Workplace Register Here Four months ago, the Dow was close to 30,000, employment rates were at historic highs, the coronavirus was still “novel,” and millions had not yet taken to the streets in global protests against police brutality and racial inequality. The workplace we now return to exists in this supercharged social and political climate, with new ..read more

Trade Association Antitrust 101 Please join us on July 14 for a webinar geared toward association legal counsel, executives, marketers, staff and members, participants in association activities or attendees to association meetings. Antitrust issues are a constant concern for trade associations and their members. Competition regulators will have associations and their members under even greater scrutiny as groups work together to address the ongoing challenges presented by COVID-19. Please join us for a webinar covering the basics of antitrust compliance for association legal and compliance cou ..read more

The Justice Department lost another merger the other day.  This one was their challenge to Sabre’s acquisition of Farelogix.  Sabre aggregates air fares in a hosted environment and serves about 50 percent of the market.  Farelogix developed, and then open sourced, a peer-to-peer solution for the airline/travel agent industry (the “new distribution capability”), and provides consulting and coding services to airlines who want to adopt it.  The IATA owns and updates the P2P specification.  Any entity can adopt the P2P solution and do so without paying a fee. There was ev ..read more

On March 24, 2020, the Antitrust Division of the Justice Department and the Bureau of Competition of the Federal Trade Commission announced that they are adopting expedited processes for reviewing potential collaborations or other activities for antitrust issues in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.  The Agencies recognized the urgency of the coronavirus event and stated that they will respond to all COVID-19-related requests “within seven (7) calendar days of receiving all necessary information.”  The Agencies then provided a few examples of types of activities that it would likely bless. The ..read more

On January 10, the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice released a draft of their long-anticipated vertical merger guidelines and withdrew their 1984 Vertical Merger Guidelines.  Vertical mergers received a significant amount of attention during the FTC’s public hearings on competition and consumer protection policy, and FTC Chairman Joseph Simons indicated last fall that guidance was in the works. The FTC vote to release the Draft Guidelines was 3-0-2, with Chairman Simons and Commissioners Phillips and Wilson voting in favor and Commissioners Chopra and Slaughter abstaining.  C ..read more

Elizabeth Warren is calling for aggressive enforcement of the antitrust laws. The House Judiciary is opening hearings on big tech, and the Justice Department and FTC have allocated amongst themselves responsibility for particular Big Tech companies. Pundits are saying it’s time for Big Tech to be broken up. So, should Big Tech be worried? Are we going to see an antitrust renaissance? Is Gilded Age 2.0 coming to an end? The short answer is, I doubt it. The economic and legal theories that have enabled Big Tech to grow into the colossuses they are today are entrenched in the jurisprudence, and w ..read more

There seems to be a growing concern that Facebook is too big and should be broken up. Among those calling for the breakup are Elizabeth Warren, Chris Hughes and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The FTC has asked Congress to pass a national privacy law to regulate the industry. While some disagree, it seems pretty clear that foreign agents were able to manipulate voters in the 2016 election. But, would breaking up Facebook put an end to foreign intervention? Would it “help” democracy? From an antitrust standpoint, it seems unlikely that the government would succeed in an antitrust suit against Faceboo ..read more

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Science, the folks who bring you the Oscars, are voting on a rule change that would exclude movies by companies like Netflix from consideration. The Justice Department apparently does not take kindly to the idea. According to Variety, Makan Delrahim, Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust, wrote the Academy stating that “agreements among competitors to exclude new competitors can violate the antitrust laws when their purpose or effect is to impede competition by goods or services that consumers purchase and enjoy but which threaten the profits of incu ..read more

Presidential Candidate Elizabeth Warren thinks Big Tech is too big and wants it—and, in particular, Amazon, Facebook and Google—broken up and their past mergers and acquisitions unwound. And the FTC recently announced it was forming a Task Force to look into the technology markets. There do seem to be issues with Big Tech. But is antitrust, as currently practiced, the best tool to address them?  Ms. Warren contemplates this by suggesting a new regulatory regime should be implemented to control Big Tech.  Should we treat platforms like a regulated utility?  Should we pass a new antitrust law th ..read more

The Luxembourg Competition Authority recently handed down a decision that found an app-based taxi booking system, Webtaxi, was not a hardcore violation of the relevant competition law banning price fixing.  The algorithm determined the precise fare the passenger would pay for a trip.  The taxis remained competitors otherwise and the cabs on the app represented only 26 percent of the relevant taxi market.  Fares were otherwise negotiable.  The Authority found the efficiency gains material and the pricing reasonably necessary to obtain the gains.   Specifically, they found the app would reduce f ..read more