Articles Posted in International Highlights

On May 27, 2014, Hitoshi Hirano, an executive of car heater panel manufacturer Tokai Rika, was indicted to fix the price of auto parts with other Japanese parts manufacturers. In addition, Mr. Hirano was charged with persuading company employees to destroy records that would reveal the conspiracy. According to the indictment, Mr. Hirano learned of…

On May 29, 2014, Brazilian antitrust agency, Conselho Administrativo de Defesa Econômica (“CADE”) maintained a record fine of 3.1 billion Brazilian reais (around $1.4 billion), on top of mandatory asset divestitures, against the members of a long-running cement and concrete cartel that has allegedly inflated the price of cement and concrete products by as much…

On May 29, South Korea’s  Yonhap news agency reported that the country’s Prosecutor’s Office has seized documents from the Korea Rail Network Authority (“KR”), to investigate bribery and irregular supply relationships by three to four rail part manufacturers that provided supplies to KR. In addition, some rail parts manufacturers are being accused of counterfeiting certificates…

On May 28, 2014, the Financial Times (“FT”) reported that junior employees and sale staff of GlaxoSmithKline (“GSK”) China is suing their management over unreimbursed “bribes” paid, at the management’s behest, to hospitals and doctors. In the allegations put forth by the employees, the management of GSK China directed staff to purchase fake receipts to…

On April 29, 2014, the European Commission (“EC”) announced that it has reached a legally-binding agreement with Samsung on standard essential patent (“SEP”) injunctions. According to the terms of the agreement, Samsung “will not seek injunctions” in the EU on the basis of its SEPs for smartphones and tablets against licensees who sign up to…

Last week, the newly-established UK Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”), its main anti-trust and consumer protection agency, announced an advisory process to provide guidance to businesses on the application of competition law to potential horizontal and vertical agreements raising novel or unresolved issues has been put into practice. The “Short-form Opinion” (“SfO”) tool has been launched on…

On April 8, 2014, China’s Insurance Regulatory Commission (“CIRC”) announced that it is relaxing merger and acquisition (M&A) rules in the insurance industry. Specifically, CIRC scrapped the rule that would previously limit insurers from buying more than one peer that competes in the same market segment. This move has been welcomed by both domestic and…

On March 20, 2014, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) issued a statement on violations of rules on reporting mergers. The statement announced that starting on May 1, 2014, MOFCOM will publish on its website a list of all offenders who fail to report mergers in violation of the Anti-Monopoly Law, on top of existing…

On March 17, 2014, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) sought comments from antitrust lawyers on draft rules for its long-awaited simplified merger review procedure in a meeting behind close doors. Attendees reported that MOFCOM showed a much simplified notification form, which could significantly reduce the burden of proof companies have to provide to MOFCOM…

On February 27, China’s Ministry of Commerce (“MOFCOM”) announced that it cleared 207 merger review cases in the administrative year of 2013, an increase of 26% over the numbers in 2012. During the same time period, the number of merger filings increased by 8%, while the number of accepted cases increased by 12.8%, to 212.…