The Antitrust Week In Review
Here are some of the developments in antitrust news this past week that we found interesting and are following.
.聽 AT&T Inc.鈥檚 WarnerMedia has accused the U.S. Department of Justice of 鈥渃ollaborating鈥� with Dish Network Corp. in a high profile dispute over carrying HBO and Cinemax. For the first time in its 40-year history, Warner Media鈥檚 HBO, known for its award winning TV series 鈥淕ame of Thrones鈥� and 鈥淭he Sopranos,鈥� went dark on Dish鈥檚 satellite television service on Thursday after a disagreement over a new distribution deal. The dispute could be a public relations blow to AT&T, which is heading back into court in December when oral arguments begin in the DOJ鈥檚 appeal of the antitrust decision approving the No. 2 U.S. wireless carrier鈥檚 $85 billion deal to buy Time Warner.
.聽 Three former London-based currency traders were found not guilty on Friday of U.S. charges that they schemed to rig benchmark exchange rates, the latest verdict to emerge from a U.S. probe into the multitrillion-dollar foreign exchange market. Chris Ashton, Rohan Ramchandani and Richard Usher, who worked at Barclays Plc, Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., respectively, were acquitted of all charges by a jury in Manhattan federal court after a trial of conspiring to violate the Sherman Act, a federal antitrust law.
.聽 The European Union’s anti-trust watchdog is launching a probe into a planned joint venture by German steelmaker Thyssenkrupp and India’s Tata Steel, saying it might reduce competition.聽The two companies said in June they had signed a deal to merge their European steel operations into a new Netherlands-based firm called Thyssenkrupp Tata Steel B.V. in which they would both hold a 50 percent stake. EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager announced the investigation Tuesday.
.聽 Britain鈥檚 competition watchdog cleared CME Group Inc.鈥檚 3.9 billion pounds ($4.96 billion) deal to buy Michael Spencer鈥檚 NEX Group Plc, paving the way for a cross-border trading powerhouse.聽The Competition and Markets Authority said on Wednesday that it would not refer the deal for further investigation. The move comes at a time when large exchange mergers, such as between the London Stock Exchange and Deutsche Boerse, have hit antitrust hurdles in recent years.
Tagged in: Antitrust Enforcement, Antitrust Litigation, International Competition Issues,