First Ever Extradition On An Antitrust Charge

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In what is being claimed (and probably is)  as the first ever extradition on an Antitrust charge, Romano Pisciotti, an Italian national, was extradited from Germany to the United States  on a charge of participating in a conspiracy to suppress and eliminate competition by rigging bids, fixing prices and allocating market shares for sales of marine hose sold in the United States and elsewhere, the Department of Justice announced today. According to the Department of Justice (D. O. J.) of the U.S.:

 

“This first of its kind extradition on an antitrust charge allows the department to bring an alleged price fixer to the United States to face charges of participating in a worldwide conspiracy,” said Assistant Attorney General Bill Baer in charge of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. “This marks a significant step forward in our ongoing efforts to work with our international antitrust colleagues to ensure that those who seek to subvert U.S. law are brought to justice.”

 

A copy of the Official Press Release can be found here. 

 

P.S.: For those who don’t know, Antitrust laws in the U.S.A. provide for both civil and criminal remedies.

Workshop On Competition Law Compliance

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The C.I.R.C. is organising a Workshop on Competition Law Compliance on the 18th and 19th of April, 2014 at Hotel Metropolitan, Bangla Sahib Road, New Delhi.

 

For further details and registration, click here. 

E.C. Policy Brief On Commitments

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The European Commission recently released a Competition Policy Brief on it’s Commitment Decisions.

“In a nutshell The Commission retains a margin of discretion in the choice of opting for an Article 7 prohibition decision or an Article 9 commitments decision. The choice depends on the main objectives pursued and the specific features of the case. In practice, commitment decisions are not appropriate in cases calling mainly for imposing high fines for past behaviour, or where no effective, clear and precise remedy is identifiable. They are only possible when companies are willing to offer appropriate commitments.”

The topic isn’t particularly relevant for India as of today, since the Competition Act as of now does not allow the C.C.I. to “settle/compromise” cases or investigations. But the transparency adopted by the E.C. is definitely encouraging. For example, one would definitely like the C.C.I. to release guidelines on the determination of penalty as a start.

State aid to Spanish football clubs cannot be justified using the Market Economy Investor Principle

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I recently wrote a post on recently launched E.U. Commission investigation into State Aids provided to Spanish Football Clubs.

Click here to read the post.

National Level Essay Competition 2014

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The Annual National Essay Competition on Competition Law organised by the C.I.R.C. is back.

The last date for submission of entries is 15th March, 2014.

For further details, click here. Happy writing and all the best !!

Filling Up of Posts in Competition Commission of India on Deputation Basis.

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The Competition Commission of India has invited applications for filling up of various posts on deputation on foreign service basis. The details of the posts along with eligibility criteria, educational qualification/experience etc. required for each category of the posts can be found here. 

 

The C.C.I.’s Jet-Etihad Combination Order: Ambiguous and Incomplete

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I recently wrote a critique for Legally India on the Jet – Etihad Combination Order (Main Order/Dissenting Order/Section 38 Order/Section 43A Main Order/ Section 43A Partially Dissenting Order.)

Please feel free to provide feedback and comments, especially if your opinions are contrary to mine.

Click here to read the Article.

T.R.A.I. Releases Recommendations On “Monopoly/Market dominance in Cable T.V. services”

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The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (T.R.A.I.), as per a newspaper report, has released  it’s recommendations on the Monopoly and Market Dominance in the cable T.V. Sector. The document has not as yet been uploaded on the T.R.A.I. Website, so will post a link whenever it’s available, and if required, may even comment upon it.

In the meantime, you can read our comments on the issue here and here. (Long story on the why they are on different blogs.)

Update: Click here for the recommendations.

A quick reading gives the following impression:

1. Overall, it is a well drafted and well researched Recommendation Paper.

2. It agrees with our reasoning that the particular state should be considered as the relevant market.

3. The Authority recommends that market dominance should be determined based on market share in terms of the number of active subscribers of M.S.O.’s in the relevant market and that for measuring the level of competition or market concentration in a relevant market, the Herfindahl–Hirschman Index (H.H.I.) should be used. I have already outlined by disagreements with this method in the previous posts.

4. The Paper has favoured the T.R.A.I. to look into mergers and acquisitions in the sector. This is obviously debatable, as has been noted in the Paper itself, and will most likely lead to some initial conflict and requiring clarification. And what doesn’t  help is the fact that the Recommendations are based on definitions given under the Competition Act, 2002.