Author: Luis Blanquez Are you delegating your pricing decisions to a common algorithm software platform? If so, you might violate the antitrust laws. It may not even matter whether you actually communicated with your competitors. All it might take is for the antitrust agencies—The Department of Justice or the Federal…
Authors: Steve Cernak & Molly Donovan There is no guaranteed safety zone for exchanging competitively sensitive information amongst competitors. Practices once deemed relatively safe—like subscribing to a third-party data services provider to manage the exchange—now carry increased risks. This is mostly because machine learning and AI have made it possible…
Author: Steven Cernak The Department of Justice’s challenge of certain Google actions raises interesting antitrust questions. But during the first week of the trial, the biggest issue seemed to be one aspect of Google’s antitrust compliance program. Some commentators were shocked to discover that Google’s lawyers advised the employees to…
Authors: Jon Cieslak and Molly Donovan For the first time, there is a nationwide Voluntary Self-Disclosure Program applicable to any corporate misconduct prosecutable by a US Attorney. As detailed below, companies that make a qualifying Voluntary Self-Disclosure (VSD) are eligible for “resolutions under more favorable terms than if the government…
Authors: Jon Cieslak & Molly Donovan Two individuals and four of their corporate entities pleaded guilty to an antitrust conspiracy to fix the prices of DVDs and Blu-Rays sold on Amazon’s platform during the 2016-2019 time period. According to the plea agreements, the defendants “engaged in discussions, transmitted across state…
Author: Molly Donovan Every spring, the Trooper Girls sell cookies in their town. Although they’re all members of the same group, the girls compete against each other to be the top cookie seller of the season. The girls hold regular meetings with rules set by the troop leader based on…
Author: Molly Donovan Crises that disrupt distribution chains and cause supply shortages tend to prompt discussions among competitors about how to survive. Discussions may begin as relatively innocuous information exchanges but become risky when they turn to coping strategies. This topic can sometimes lead to conversations amongst competitors such as,…
Author: Pat Pascarella The press is awash in reports on proposed amendments to the antitrust laws and heightened, and in some instances targeted, enforcement agendas at the DOJ, FTC, and state AGs’ offices. While the specifics of each may be fascinating to antitrust attorneys and law professors, the sole question…
Author: Jon Cieslak In 1993, the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division created its Leniency Program by issuing its Corporate Leniency Policy. The Leniency Program provides means for a company to avoid criminal prosecution for violating federal antitrust laws—such as price fixing, bid rigging, and market allocation—by self-reporting the illegal…
Authors: Luis Blanquez and Jon Cieslak Deferred prosecution agreements (“DPAs”) in the antitrust world have been a hot topic on this side of the Atlantic during the past two years. DPAs seem to be slowly becoming an efficient instrument for the Department of Justice to tackle antitrust conspiracies, and we…