On July 3, 2019, Chairman Jay Clayton of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a Statement Regarding Offers of Settlement (the “Public Statement”) to announce a significant shift in the SEC’s process of...more
8/8/2019
/ Bad Actors ,
Cease and Desist Orders ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Institutions ,
Investment Company Act of 1940 ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Public Statements ,
Rulemaking Process ,
SEC Commissioner ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Settlement Agreements ,
Settlement Negotiations
Welcome to the 2019 Shearman & Sterling Antitrust Annual Report.
Our seventh edition focuses on the contrasting use by regulators of antitrust laws with respect to the FANGs, and how antitrust is being enforced in the U.S....more
7/24/2019
/ Acquisitions ,
Antitrust Investigations ,
Antitrust Litigation ,
Competition ,
Competition Authorities ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Criminal Liability ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Digital Marketplace ,
Digital Media ,
Enforcement Actions ,
EU ,
Extraterritoriality Rules ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FinTech ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Leniency Programs ,
Merger Controls ,
Mergers ,
No-Poaching ,
Recruitment Policies ,
State Aid ,
Trump Administration ,
UK Brexit
The European Commission (EC) and other national competition authorities (NCAs) have traditionally shied away from investigating allegations of excessive pricing and appearing as price regulators. Commissioner Vestager warned...more
4/26/2018
/ Abuse of Dominance ,
Actavis Inc. ,
Antitrust Investigations ,
Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ,
EU ,
Excessive Pricing ,
Hoffman LaRoche ,
Merck ,
Pay-For-Delay ,
Pfizer ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Prescription Drugs ,
Pricing ,
Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) ,
UK ,
UK Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT)
In perhaps the most hotly anticipated judgment in the European competition law world this year, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) handed down its landmark ruling on September 6, 2017 in Intel’s appeal against...more
4/26/2018
/ Abuse of Dominance ,
Anti-Competitive ,
Antitrust Litigation ,
Appeals ,
Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
Intel ,
Rebates ,
Rebuttable Presumptions ,
Rules of Civil Procedure
Large online platforms such as Amazon, Facebook and Google have a strong presence in Europe. Although general competition law principles apply to them, cases concerning online platforms give rise to a lot of novel questions...more
4/24/2018
/ Abuse of Dominance ,
AirBnB ,
Amazon ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Competition Authorities ,
EU ,
Facebook ,
Google ,
Online Platforms ,
Social Networks ,
Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU)
On December 9, 2016, the PRC National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) handed down its decision against medical device company Medtronic for having concluded and implemented a vertical monopoly agreement by...more
The growth of e-commerce and the resulting increase in price transparency and price competition have a significant impact on companies’ distribution strategies and consumer behavior. While the emergence of e-commerce has the...more
4/20/2018
/ Amazon ,
Antitrust Investigations ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Coty ,
E-Commerce ,
EU ,
Internet Retailers ,
Manufacturers ,
Product Pricing ,
Retailers ,
Sales & Distribution Agreements ,
Supply Chain ,
Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU)
It has been a year since Article 50 was triggered on March 29, 2017, and if no extension is given, the U.K. will leave the European Union (EU) on March 29, 2019. This means that negotiations are now at the half-way point, but...more
4/18/2018
/ Article 50 Treaty of the EU ,
Cross-Border Transactions ,
EFTA ,
EU ,
European Economic Area (EEA) ,
Free Trade Agreements ,
Member State ,
Merger Agreements ,
Mergers ,
State Aid ,
UK ,
UK Brexit ,
UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) ,
WTO
Divining trends in antitrust enforcement in a given presidential administration can take some time. Many commentators didn’t notice material changes in antitrust enforcement in the Obama administration – at least in merger...more
Algorithms and the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) have become commonplace in a vast number of markets, and this has drawn the attention not only of competition law academics and practitioners, but also of competition...more
While structural remedies remain the primary remedy of choice, and virtually the only option in the case of horizontal mergers, under the Obama Administration and with respect to vertical mergers, the agencies increasingly...more
The EU and U.S. competition authorities have been and remain active in enforcing gun-jumping cases, while in recent years other competition authorities across the world, including in China, have also become increasingly...more
4/12/2018
/ Acquisitions ,
Antitrust Violations ,
China ,
Competition ,
Competition Authorities ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
Gun-Jumping ,
Hart-Scott-Rodino Act ,
Japan ,
Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) ,
Mergers ,
MOFCOM
In China, where foreign investments used to be subject to a case-by-case evaluation, the screening process for acquisitions of local businesses by foreign investors is being simplified and becoming more industry-focused. This...more
4/12/2018
/ CFIUS ,
China ,
Cross-Border Transactions ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
Foreign Acquisitions ,
Foreign Investment ,
Germany ,
Italy ,
Merger Controls ,
Mergers ,
MOFCOM ,
National Security Review Proceedings ,
UK
Is this perception well-founded? And does it represent a new policy trend towards ‘social justice’ objectives or simply a continuation of a policy driver that has underpinned EU competition enforcement for some time?...more
4/11/2018
/ Agricultural Sector ,
Anti-Competitive ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Cartels ,
Competition ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
International Tax Issues ,
Member State ,
Mergers ,
Multinationals ,
R&D ,
State Aid ,
Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) ,
Unfair or Deceptive Trade Practices
On Monday, June 19, 2017, the Supreme Court clarified the limits of specific personal jurisdiction in state courts, holding that a connection between a defendant’s contacts with the forum and the claims at issue remains...more
On Monday, June 5, 2017, a unanimous Supreme Court held that the ability of the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) to seek disgorgement in connection with a violation of federal securities law is subject to a...more
On March 27, 2017, the United States Supreme Court granted a petition for a writ of certiorari to resolve a circuit split on whether corporate issuers’ disclosure obligation under Item 303 of SEC Regulation S-K can be an...more
Shearman & Sterling’s 2017 Antitrust Annual Report reflects our lawyers’ experience and insights on key antitrust risks affecting our clients’ businesses.
...more
3/22/2017
/ American Express ,
Antitrust Investigations ,
Antitrust Violations ,
Big Data ,
Cartels ,
E-Commerce ,
EU ,
Extraterritoriality Rules ,
FTAIA ,
Merger Controls ,
State Aid ,
UK Brexit
Last week, Magistrate Judge Andrew Peck of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York issued a stern rebuke to counsel in Fischer v. Forrest for what he viewed as a failure to adhere to the...more
Yesterday, the United States Supreme Court issued a unanimous, but narrow, ruling in Salman v. United States, regarding criminal tipper/tippee liability for insider trading, which the Supreme Court had not significantly...more
In so-called “price maintenance” securities fraud cases, plaintiffs argue that a misrepresentation that does not cause a stock’s price to rise can nevertheless be actionable under Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange of...more
The tolling rule established by the Supreme Court in American Pipe & Construction Co. v. Utah generally provides that the commencement of a class action in federal court suspends the applicable statute of limitations for all...more
For purposes of assessing the existence of federal subject matter jurisdiction based on diversity of citizenship, national banking associations—i.e., corporate entities chartered not by any State, but by the Office of the...more
The Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act (“FIRREA”) includes a so-called Extender Statute prescribing the limitations period for actions brought by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”) as...more
In its recently issued decision in Husky International Electronics, Inc. v. Ritz, a 7-1 majority of the Supreme Court has clarified that intentionally fraudulent transfers designed to hinder or defraud creditors can fall...more