Intel’s fine

In July the Wall Street Journal had a short debate whether the fine by the European Commission on Intel has violated its (?) human rights. See: Has the EU Violated Intel’s Human Rights?; Intel Cites Human Rights In EU Fight On Antitrust; Do Companies Have Human Rights?) The articles inspired also many comments on the newspaper’s page and also on other sites. See for example: LANDE, R. H. (2009) Quick – Somebody Call Amnesty International! Intel Says EU Antitrust Fine Violated Human Rights. SSRN eLibrary.

In its application to the CFI (Case T-286/09), Intel argued that

“all or part of the Decision should be annulled on the basis that the Commission infringed essential procedural requirements during the administrative procedure, which materially infringed Intel’s rights of defence. In particular, the Commission failed:

• to grant Intel an oral hearing in relation to the Supplementary Statement of Objections and Letter of Facts, even though they raised entirely new allegations and referred to new evidence which feature prominently in the contested decision;
• to procure certain internal documents from the competitor for the case file, when requested to do so by the applicant notwithstanding that, in the applicant’s opinion, the documents:

(i) were directly relevant to the Commission’s allegations against Intel,

(ii) were potentially exculpatory of Intel and

(iii) had been identified by Intel with precision;

to make a proper note of its meeting with a key witness from one of Intel’s customers, who was highly likely to have given exculpatory evidence.”

Today the European Commission published its decision. 518 pages long. On page 515, the decision sais: “Intel has submitted that its annual turnover in the business year ending 29 December 2008 was EUR 25 555 million (USD 37 586 million).  The final amount of the fine to be imposed on Intel should therefore be EUR 1 060 000 000.” (paras. 1082 and 1083). This means that the fine was about 4,15% of the pervious year’s turnover.

In the application before the CFI Intel argues that: “… the fine of EUR 1 060 000 000 (the largest ever fine imposed upon a single firm by the Commission) is manifestly disproportionate given that the Commission fails to establish any consumer harm or foreclosure of the competitors.”

Merger statistics – update

Update: today it worked again and had the right content.

Today I wanted to look at the merger statistics, but DG COMP’s webpage under http://ec.europa.eu/competition/mergers/statistics.pdf includes the antitrust statistics…

America’s vigorous new antitrust policy: Return of the trustbusters | The Economist

America’s vigorous new antitrust policy: Return of the trustbusters | The Economist

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Complying with Europe…

A very interesting article in WSJ on the convergence of the two major antitrust system. I remember the huge outcry at the time when the CFI judgment in Microsoft was delivered. See for example.

Empirical highlights on cartels

If one would like to persuade someone why cartels are bad, one could use either the common textbook arguments. More persuasive are nevertheless the slides by Connor here.

Three weeks left

Competition Enforcement in the Recently Acceded Member States

Location: Budapest - Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Faculty of Law and Political Sciences

Date: 08 May 2009

See more here.

 

Why?

Countries that recently acceded to the European Union have long history with competition law. Most of these countries also represent smaller, open market economies, which have faced a rapid and recent privatisation process. These countries have also endured several common historical events that make them face similar market situations and problems including inter alia excessive pricing, bid rigging, refusal to access as well as issues related to the current financial crisis.

Topics include…

The aim of this conference is to address issues that arise in competition enforcement in these rapidly developing economies with ever increasing competition expertise. This one day conference will address topics in the application of competition legislation on anticompetitive agreements, unilateral conduct, as well as issues related to the application of competition legislation in the wake of the financial crisis.

Speakers

Our speakers include the President of the Hungarian NCA (Gazdasági Versenyhivatal), the Head of Competition Outreach at OECD, the VIce-President of the Polish NCA (Office of Competition and Consumer Protection), Vice-Chairman of the Czech NCA (Office for the Protection of Competition), Members of the Hungarian Competition Council, Chief-Economist of the Hungarian NCA, senior OECD experts, highly acknowledged academics, officials and lawyers from leading regional law firms.

Sponsors

We gratefully acknowledge the support of the following sponsors:

 

Our media partner is

Call for Nominations for the Jerry S. Cohen Award for the Best Antitrust Scholarship of 2008

The Jerry S. Cohen Memorial Charitable Trust is again seeking nominations for its annual award for best antitrust scholarship. Legal, economic, and business articles, monographs, and books published during 2008 are eligible for this award of approximately $8,000-9,000. The Award will be presented during the American Antitrust Institute Annual Conference on June 18, 2009 at The National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Although the Cohen Award’s judges search the literature for worthy scholarship, your nominations, including self-nominations, will help make sure they do not inadvertently overlook any important candidates. The award is made through a trust set up in the memory of antitrust attorney and author Jerry S. Cohen, brought about by efforts and donations of friends, colleagues and his former law firm. This year’s award will be selected by a committee consisting of Professors John Flynn, Eleanor Fox, Warren Grimes; antitrust practitioners Daniel Small and Charles Goodwin; and Judge Ann Yahner. Last year’s co-winners were Professor Maurice E. Stucke for “Behavioral Economists at the Gate: Antitrust in the Twenty-First Century” and Professor Robert H. Lande and Neil W. Averitt for “Using the ‘Consumer Choice’ Approach to Antitrust Law.” Previous winners include Professors Lawrence Sullivan and Warren Grimes for “The Law of Antitrust: An Integrated Handbook” (2nd Ed. 2006), Barry Nalebuff for “Exclusionary Bundling,” Professor Andrew Gavil for “Exclusionary Distribution Strategies by Dominant Firms: Striking a Better Balance,” Professor John Connor, for “Global Price Fixing,” and Professors Joseph F. Brodley, Patrick Bolton, and Michael H. Riordan for “Predatory Pricing: Strategic Theory and Legal Policy.” To be considered eligible and selected for the award, submissions should reflect a concern for principles of economic justice, the dispersal of economic power, the maintenance of effective limitations upon economic power or the federal statutes designed to protect society from various forms of anticompetitive activity. Submissions should reflect an awareness of the human and social impacts of economic institutions upon individuals, small businesses and other institutions necessary to the maintenance of a just and humane society–values and concerns Jerry S. Cohen dedicated his life and work to fostering. Submissions may address substantive, procedural or evidentiary matters that reflect these values and concerns. Please send a copy of your nomination before April 17, 2009 to Daniel A. Small, at dsmall@cohenmilstein.com, or at Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll, PLLC, 1100 New York Avenue, N.W., West Tower, Suite 500, Washington, D.C. 20005. For a detailed statement of the Award’s eligibility and selection criteria, or if you have any questions about the Cohen Award, please contact Daniel A. Small, at 202-408-4600 or the above e-mail address.

Competition Enforcement in the Recently Acceded Member States

Location: Budapest - Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Faculty of Law and Political Sciences

Date: 08 May 2009

See more here.

 

Why?

Countries that recently acceded to the European Union have long history with competition law. Most of these countries also represent smaller, open market economies, which have faced a rapid and recent privatisation process. These countries have also endured several common historical events that make them face similar market situations and problems including inter alia excessive pricing, bid rigging, refusal to access as well as issues related to the current financial crisis.

Topics include…

The aim of this conference is to address issues that arise in competition enforcement in these rapidly developing economies with ever increasing competition expertise. This one day conference will address topics in the application of competition legislation on anticompetitive agreements, unilateral conduct, as well as issues related to the application of competition legislation in the wake of the financial crisis.

Speakers

Our speakers include the President of the Hungarian NCA (Gazdasági Versenyhivatal), the Head of Competition Outreach at OECD, the VIce-President of the Polish NCA (Office of Competition and Consumer Protection), Vice-Chairman of the Czech NCA (Office for the Protection of Competition), Members of the Hungarian Competition Council, Chief-Economist of the Hungarian NCA, senior OECD experts, highly acknowledged academics, officials and lawyers from leading regional law firms.

Sponsors

We gratefully acknowledge the support of the following sponsors:

 

Our media partner is

Call for Papers: WORKSHOP ON COMPETITION POLICY AND REGULATION IN MEDIA MARKETS

WORKSHOP ON COMPETITION POLICY AND REGULATION IN MEDIA MARKETS:
Bridging Law and Economics

Thursday 4 June and Friday 5 June 2009
TILEC, Tilburg University, The Netherlands

The Tilburg Law and Economics Center (TILEC) will organise a workshop on 
Competition Policy and Regulation in Media Markets at Tilburg University (The
Netherlands) on Thursday 4 June and Friday 5 June 2009.

Call for Papers 
The goal of the conference is to bring together academics working on media-
related issues and to foster interdisciplinary interaction between economists 
and lawyers. A growing number of lawyers and economists work on media-
related topics, but often independently from each other. We believe there is still
much to be gained by bringing the two groups together. Scholars of the two disci-
plines have different approaches and often move in different policy circles. 
However, economic reasoning and analysis are taking an increasingly important 
position within the application of law in the broad field of media, both in the area 
of sector-specific regulation and in competition law. Moreover, the electronic 
communications sector (telecom, broadcasting, Internet) is of utmost importance 
to the economic development and to social cohesion. 
Hence, it is essential that media scientists from the two disciplines share their 
expert knowledge in order to propose high quality regulation to policy makers.

The objective of the ‘Competition Policy and Regulation in Media Markets’ work-
shop is to have economic and legal contributions of the highest quality, but effort 
in presenting it to a mixed audience is expected. Economists are expected to
bring in reasons to regulate/not regulate/how to regulate according to economic 
theory, lawyers to bring in knowledge of the current regulation, of court decisions 
and of the legal feasibility of regulation proposals. Each presenter will be 
assigned a discussant. Theoretical, empirical and policy-oriented articles are 
welcome.

A non-exclusive list of topics of interest is:
- The goal of public intervention: efficiency vs. pluralism
- The impact of convergence and digitalization 
- Network neutrality
- The New Audiovisual Media Services Directive in the EU
- The EU Regulatory Framework for Electronic Communications
- Market structure and political outcomes
- Media mergers and pluralism
- Media bias: measurement and determinants 
- Scope for public ownership and public intervention
- Financing of public service broadcasting
- Regulation of advertising and media content
- Media as two-sided markets
- Piracy, peer-to-peer, copyright 
- Exclusive contracts
- Vertical integration between distribution and content provision
- Price discrimination, dynamic pricing, versioning, and bundling
- Privacy, anonymity, security, digital rights management, trust

Invited speakers
Economics: Simon Anderson (University of Virginia), Joel Waldfogel (University of 
Pennsylvania)
Law: Nico van Eijk (University of Amsterdam), Rachael Craufurd Smith (Edinburg 
Law School)

Scientific committee
Elena Argentesi (University of Bologna)
Eric van Damme (Tilburg University)
Nico van Eijk (University of Amsterdam)
Lapo Filistrucchi (Tilburg University)
Thomas Gibbons (University of Manchester)
Ilse van der Haar (Tilburg University)
Pierre Larouche (Tilburg University)
Massimo Motta (University of Bologna)

PRACTICAL INFORMATION

Submissions
The deadline for submission is March 29, 2009. Articles should be submitted in 
PDF to TILEC-Media@uvt.nl. Long abstract are accepted but full papers are 
preferred. In case you have any question(s), please contact the local organisation 
committee (see below).

Registration
Authors of selected papers will be notified by April 6, 2009. TILEC will cover the 
accommodation and travel expenses of conference participants who present 
or discuss an accepted paper. Presenters might be asked to discuss a paper.

Local organising committee/contacts persons

Lapo Filistrucchi (Tilburg University), L.Filistrucchi@uvt.nl
Ilse van der Haar (Tilburg University), ilse.vanderhaar@uvt.nl.

COMPETITION POLICY IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY: An On-Line Case Book

See an interesting project here. I was always a big fan of open source-free projects. This is going into the right direction. 

COMPETITION POLICY IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY

An On-Line Case Book

Spencer Weber Waller

Institute for Consumer Antitrust Studies

Loyola University Chicago School of Law

25 E. Pearson Suite 1341

Chicago, IL 60611

312-915-8598

www.luc.edu/antitrust

antitrust@luc.edu

 

This on-line casebook examines the fields of international antitrust and international trade law. In general, it examines how the United States and other jurisdictions regulate competition among firms which do business abroad. This will include how competition policy regulates individuals and firms located outside the United States in their competition with United States firms as well as the rules governing United States firms.

These materials are intended for use in a U.S. style law school class or seminar and designed to provide the base knowledge necessary to engage in sophisticated research in the field and to produce a research based paper of 20-25 pages in length. By necessity, these materials are in English and have primarily a United States focus. The value of an on-line casebook in this field goes beyond the merely the cost savings and convenience. It is also an opportunity for a collaborative exercise that will allow for the creation of a more in-depth and creative set of materials that can be done in traditional hard cover format. Use of the casebook for educational purposes with attribution is available on a royalty-free basis under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License, available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/us/. For all other uses please contact Professor Waller at the Institute for Consumer Antitrust Studies at Loyola University Chicago School of Law or swalle1@luc.edu.

I therefore invite any competition law teacher or scholar to submit additional chapters on other competition law topics or jurisdictions not covered in these materials for inclusion in future iterations of these materials. Materials must be original or accompanied with proof of permission/license to use for this purpose and be in English and in either Word or Word Perfect. Submission of materials constitutes your permission to include the material in future editions of the on-line casebook for educational purposes with attribution available on a royalty-free basis under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License, available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/us/.

Submission of materials also constitutes permission to edit the submitted material for style, content, and compatibility with the existing text, although every reasonable effort will be made to allow you to review edited material before posting on-line. I look forward to working with the global competition law and policy community to make this the most effective and interesting teaching tool possible.

 

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter One – Extraterritoriality: The U.S. Perspective

Chapter Two – Extraterritoriality: Foreign Perspectives and Commentary

Chapter Three - Jurisdiction Over Export Conduct

Chapter Four - International Litigation Issues

Chapter Five – Unsolvable Conflicts

Chapter Six – The Role of Foreign Governments

Chapter Seven - Antitrust and Trade Issues

Chapter Eight - International Mergers and Joint Ventures

Chapter Nine - International Antitrust I: Enforcement Cooperation

Chapter Ten - International Antitrust II: Harmonization and Convergence