Antitrust Lawyer Blog

On September 30, 2008, Keith Packer, former executive of British Airways World Cargo, agreed to plead guilty, serve eight months in prison, and pay a $20,000 criminal fine for his role in a wide-ranging conspiracy to fix rates for international air cargo shipments including to and from the United States. Mr. Packer is the first…

On Septmeber 19, 2008, Kwik-Chek Food Stores, Inc., a Texas based convenience store and one of its agents, Jarrod Thomas, were charged for conspiring to fix retail gasoline and diesel fuel prices sold in Antler, OK. The conspiracy took place from early 2002 to June 2007. Kwik-Chek, based in Bonham, Texas, distributes and sells gasoline…

On September 10, 2008, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) charged Lindsey B. Holt, president of Architectural Products Co. Inc., Humberto Lopez, vice president of El Paso Steel Doors and Frames, Inc. and their respective companies with conspiracy to rig bids and allocate customers for certain contracts for sale of doors and other hardware for various…

On September 2, 2008, Marian R. Bruno, the Associate Director of Management and Operations in the Federal Trade Comission’s (“FTC”) Bureau of Competition (“Bureau”), was named the Deputy Director of the Bureau of Competition. Norman Armstrong, Deputy Assistant Director of the Bureau’s Mergers IV Division, has been named Acting Deputy Director. They join Kenneth Glazer,…

On August 28, 2008, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) approved Raycom Media, Inc.’s (“Raycom”) acquisition of Richmond NBC affiliate, WWBT-TV from Lincoln Financial Media Company (“Lincoln”) after entering into a settlement agreement requiring Raycom to divest its Richmond CBS affiliate WTVR-TV to resolve antitrust concerns. This acquisition would have resulted in Raycom owning two of…

On August 26, 2008, Edward P. Goldblatt pled guilty to fraud and tax evasion as a former purchasing warehouse assistant at the New York Power Authority (“NYPA”). Headquartered in Albany, NY, the NYPA is a non-profit energy corporation established by the State of New York providing low cost power to government agencies, municipalities, and private…

On August 13, 2008, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) ordered Sun Pharmaceutical Industry Ltd (“Sun”) to sell all rights and assets of three distinct generic formulations of the anticonvulsant drug carbamazepine to Torrent Pharmaceutical Ltd, a generic drug company based in India, for its acquisition of Taro Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (“Taro”) to proceed.Sun, based in…

On August 7, 2008, William E. Kovacic, the Federal Trade Commission Chairman, announced that Jeffery Schmidt, the Director of the Bureau of Competition for the past two and half years, will be leaving the FTC. Mr. Kovacic has named David P. Wales, the deputy director of the Bureau of Competition, as the Acting Director.Mr. Schmidt,…

After more than a decade of deliberations, the People’s Republic of China promulgated its Anti-Monopoly Law (“AML”) at the Twenty-Ninth Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Tenth National People’s Congress on August 30, 2007. The new law will go into effect tomorrow, August 1, 2008. Like the Indian Competition Act, which will be effective…

In 1999, the Government of India formed a committee to make recommendations regarding a modern competition law. The new competition law took the form of the Competition Act, 2002 which was enacted and notified in January 2003. It replaced the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act constituted in 1970. However, due to some reservations within…