Author: Luis Blanquez On July 24, 2018, the European Commission fined manufacturers Asus, Denon & Marantz, Philips and Pioneer for over €111 million for restricting the ability of online retailers to set their own retail prices for a variety of widely-used consumer electronics products. Background The Commission’s e-commerce sector inquiry,…
Author: Luis Blanquez In our prior article, we discussed the European Commission’s final report of its study of the EU’s e-commerce market for consumer goods and digital content. In this article we describe EU investigations and enforcement actions that arose from the EC’s final e-commerce market study. While the final…
Author: Luis Blanquez BACKGROUND Over the past two years, the European Commission (“EC”) has been scrutinizing the e-commerce market of consumer goods and digital content in the European Union. This is a key step on the Commission’s Digital Single Market strategy to improve access to digital goods and services. Such…
In early 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court held in North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiners v. FTC that the “active state supervision” prong of the state-action immunity from antitrust liability test applied to state licensing boards controlled by market participants. You can read my analysis of the decision here.…
FTC Commissioner Joshua Wright recently announced his retirement from the FTC Commission to go back to George Mason University School of Law. But he did not go out quietly. Not only was he incredibly productive during his FTC tenure, but he left right after the Federal Trade Commission issued “Principles…
I’ve often written about real estate on this blog. There are two reasons for this. The first and most important reason is because my wife and I invest in real estate and thus talk about real estate, so it is on my mind. In fact, I have my California real-estate license.…
So here’s an idea. Let me know what you think: A hedge fund or other investment vehicle centered on antitrust analysis. I’ll explain. As you might know, I am an antitrust attorney. And I write a blog on antitrust and competition law. So, as you may expect, I follow antitrust…
When you are a law student, you don’t usually understand that most cases are just one of several business tools that are companies utilize to advance their interests in the marketplace. You might think that cases are academic-like exercises that reach either trial or some appellate court (perhaps after a…
Antitrust matters to me. It is a big part of how I make my living—as an antitrust attorney. That is why the blog is called (unimaginatively) The Antitrust Attorney Blog. You might be an antitrust lawyer too. And if so, I guess the above question is easy for you to…
Sometimes competition is a real hassle. If your company has a loyal customer or longtime employee, you feel betrayed when a competitor swoops in to try to “steal them.” If you are the Miami Heat, you probably don’t like that the Cleveland Cavaliers are trying to hire your best player,…