Since the Antitrust Division's March 2022 announcement that it would once again consider and bring criminal charges for violations of Section 2 of the Sherman Act, DOJ has resisted calls for guidance about what conduct would...more
The U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division ("DOJ") recently resolved a criminal case with Teva Pharmaceuticals and Glenmark Pharmaceuticals via deferred prosecution agreements ("DPAs"), which include a novel remedy for...more
On 23 March 2023 the UK Competition and Markets Authority (‘CMA’) issued an announcement that it has issued fines totalling nearly £60m to 10 construction firms for illegally colluding to rig bids for demolition and asbestos...more
This newsletter is a summary of the antitrust developments we think are most interesting to your business. Vivian Cao, partner at Allen & Overy Lang Yue, is our editor this month....more
OIG Warns That Proposed Drug Discounts May Warrant Sanctions - On October 5, the US Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued an advisory opinion assessing a proposal that involved...more
The Justice Department’s Antitrust Division has had a rough year in the criminal arena. While the Antitrust Division has aggressively blocked several proposed mergers, it has lost several significant criminal cases. ...more
Since the last edition of the QCC, there has been a series of dramatic developments in the criminal antitrust enforcement space in the U.S. from the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division (Division)....more
Procurement Collusion Strike Force - The Procurement Collusion Strike Force, formed by the Department of Justice in 2019, is ramping up enforcement pressures against government contractors. The Strike Force brings together...more
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced an initiative on Feb. 17, 2022, to investigate and prosecute individuals and businesses that engage in collusive schemes relating to supply chain disruptions. Seeking to protect...more
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on June 7, 2021, that a North Carolina engineering firm agreed to pay a $7 million fine and $1.5 million in restitution after pleading guilty to engaging in bid rigging and fraud...more
In previous decisions the European Court of Justice ("ECJ") had ruled that cartel infringements continue as long as they have economic effects. This was partly interpreted to mean that a bid-rigging cartel only ends with the...more
A new year, a new administration in the United States, and new cartel enforcement leadership in the United Kingdom have begun. In the United States, first-of-their-kind criminal charges have been brought involving labor and...more
The Justice Department announced this week the formation of a new Procurement Collusion Strike Force, which will focus on “deterring, detecting, investigating and prosecuting antitrust crimes, such as bid-rigging conspiracies...more
This week I am mining the guilty pleas of the former Unaoil Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Cyrus Ahsani, and former Chief Operations Officer (COO), Saman Ahsani, for what they might mean for Foreign Corrupt Practices Act...more
Below, we summarize significant cartel enforcement developments from U.S. and other antitrust enforcers in recent months, including the significant change to longstanding policy by the Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust...more
On 17 May 2019, the Hong Kong Competition Tribunal (“the Tribunal”) passed an important milestone when it issued its first two findings of infringement of the city’s competition law regime. The judgments serve as a...more
Q4 Update: Overview of Cartel Investigations - Although 2018 saw guilty pleas and new indictments in several ongoing Department of Justice (DOJ) investigations, the year finished by continuing a downward trend in antitrust...more
On 18 April 2017, the Thai National Legislative Assembly (NLA) submitted the draft Trade Competition Act B.E. 2560 (2017), which it had approved on 24 March 2017 (the New Act), to the Secretariat to the Cabinet. The Prime...more
On 19 April 2016, legislative decree n. 50/2016 containing the new Italian Public Procurement Code (PPC) entered into force. The PPC aims to implement, among others, Directive 2014/24/EU which sets out, at Article 57, a...more
On 11 October 2016, the Cabinet approved the draft Trade Competition Act B.E. ... (the New Act). As we reported in our e-Bulletin titled Ground-breaking Antitrust Reform in Thailand, published 30 May 2016, the New Act...more
On 20th June 2016, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) released an open-letter offering advice to public authorities to help spot anti-competitive activity during a tender process. This is known as bid-rigging....more
Wondering what was behind the Department of Justice indictment of the late Aubrey McClendon? The charge was conspiring to rig bids for oil and gas properties in Oklahoma. Read the McClendon indictment and engage in the parlor...more
On 23 March 2016, the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) announced that it had fined four cold-storage firms for having put in place anticompetitive arrangements while in extended merger talks with one...more
The implementation of the new Competition Ordinance (Chapter 619 of the Laws of Hong Kong) (the Competition Ordinance) on 14 December 2015 will mark the first time that Hong Kong has a general and cross-sector competition...more