Emily Townsend
Subscribe to Emily Townsend's PostsEU National Courts May Have to Order Recovery of State Aid Before European Commission Makes Final Decision
By Emily Townsend on Nov 26, 2013
Posted In EC Developments, German Developments
The European Court of Justice decided on 21 November 2013 that EU national courts must assume that a measure qualifies as State aid, if the European Commission has opened an in-depth investigation into that measure. This judgment is relevant to all cases in which the disputed measure was already granted, or is planned to be...
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Auction Rigger Enters Guilty Plea
By Emily Townsend on Nov 11, 2013
Posted In DOJ Developments
A thirty-seventh individual pleaded guilty to participating in a conspiracy to rig bids and commit mail fraud at public real estate foreclosure auctions in Northern California. The guilty plea, entered on Monday, November 4, is yet another victory for the Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division in its ongoing investigations into a bid rigging and...
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Office Supplies Surprise: FTC Approves Office Depot-OfficeMax Merger
By Emily Townsend on Nov 7, 2013
Posted In FTC Developments, Mergers & Acquisitions
On Friday, November 1, 2013 the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ended a seven-month investigation of the proposed merger between Office Depot Inc. and OfficeMax Inc., allowing the transaction to move forward. The merger between the second and third largest office supply superstores (OSS) is not the first time the FTC has been interested in OSS...
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CJEU Confirms Prior State Aid Cannot be Taken into Account by Public Authority To Justify Further Subsidies as Market Behaviour
By Emily Townsend on Oct 31, 2013
Posted In EC Developments
In its recent judgment in Land Burgenland (Joined Cases C-214/12 P, C-215/12 P and C-223/12 P) the Court of Justice of the European Union has confirmed that State aid granted to an undertaking in the past must not be taken into account in the context of the Market Economy Operator Principle to justify further subsidies,...
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China’s MOFCOM Launches Electronic Merger Filing System
By Emily Townsend on Oct 28, 2013
Posted In Chinese Developments, Mergers & Acquisitions
Beginning on October 28, 2013, all merger control cases before China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) will have to be filed, and only be filed, in electronic form. In the past, it was required by MOFCOM to provide both hard and soft copies (i.e., paper or scanned copies) of all materials submitted. The new filing system...
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Assistant Attorney General Addresses Antitrust Remedies in First Formal Remarks
By Emily Townsend on Oct 16, 2013
Posted In Cartel Enforcement, DOJ Developments, Mergers & Acquisitions
On September 25, 2013, Assistant Attorney General Bill Baer gave his first formal remarks since becoming head of the Antitrust Division at the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) in January. Speaking at Georgetown Law’s Seventh Annual Global Antitrust Enforcement Symposium, Baer’s address was entitled “Remedies Matter: The Importance of Achieving Effective Antitrust Outcomes.” Baer...
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FTC Takes a Broad, “Generic” Approach to Actavis in Amicus Brief
By Emily Townsend on Aug 22, 2013
Posted In FTC Developments, Healthcare Antitrust, IP Antitrust
by Daniel Powers The Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) battle against “reverse-payment” settlements continues. In an amicus brief recently submitted in the case of In re Effexor XR Antitrust Litigation, the FTC advanced a broad interpretation of the Supreme Court’s decision in FTC v. Actavis that looks beyond the labels applied to agreements between brand pharmaceutical...
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How to (Legally) Keep Competitors from Poaching Your Key Employees: Antitrust Law and Non-Poaching/Non-Solicitation Agreements
By Emily Townsend on Aug 16, 2013
Posted In Joint Ventures/Competitor Collaboration
by Nick Grimmer How can a company legally protect its valuable interests in key employees, when a competitor can just swoop in with a more attractive employment offer? A non-poaching agreement or clause (also called a no- or non-poach, -hire, -interference, -switching or -solicitation agreement or clause, depending on the circumstances) can offer protection. In...
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Federal Jury Finds Horse Association Guilty of Antitrust Conspiracy and Monopolization
By Emily Townsend on Aug 5, 2013
Posted In Monopolization/Abuse of Dominance
by Karne Newburn On July 30, 2013, a federal jury unanimously ruled against the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA), the largest equine breed registry and membership organization, in Abraham & Veneklasen Joint Venture v. American Quarter Horse Association, 2-cv-0103 (N.D. Tex.). The jury found AQHA guilty of conspiring to bar cloned horses from the organization’s...
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FTC Testifies Before Congress on Impact of Patent Hold-up on Competition and Standard-Essential Patents
By Emily Townsend on Jul 31, 2013
Posted In FTC Developments, IP Antitrust
by Karne Newburn On July 30, 2013, Suzanne Munck, Chief Counsel for Intellectual Property at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), testified before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights, on the impact of patent hold-up on competition, and standard-essential patents (SEPs). The hearing covered standard-essential patent disputes and...
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