Archive for the 'Developments' Category
October 8, 2014
Concurrences Journal, in partnership with the New York University School of Law, will hold its inaugural conference “Antitrust in Emerging and Developing Countries” on Friday, October 24, 2014, at the NYU campus. This one-day conference (8:30am to 6:30pm) brings together speakers from China, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, among other jurisdictions.
September 30, 2014
Guest post by Steven J. Cernak, Schiff Hardin LLP
Reprinted with permission
Post originally appeared on the AntitrustConnect Blog
On October 14, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in North Carolina Board of Dental Examiners v. FTC, the latest in its long line of cases interpreting the state action exemption to the antitrust laws. Dozens of amici have written briefs supporting both parties. Those briefs reveal significantly different opinions about the costs and benefits of state licensure boards and how their actions should be treated under the antitrust laws.
September 24, 2014
Canada’s Competition Bureau (the “Bureau”) has been working over the past year or two to update its competition law compliance guidelines and policies. Competition law compliance has also figured prominently in recent remarks by Canada’s new Commissioner of Competition, John Pecman (see for example: here). As part of the Bureau’s initiative to raise competition compliance awareness, on September 18th the Bureau issued a revised draft Corporate Compliance Programs Bulletin for public comment (see: here and here).
September 23, 2014
With a major bid-rigging trial commencing in Ottawa in the IT sector, ongoing auto parts bid-rigging/cartel investigations including record $5 million and $30 million bid-rigging fines in Canada (see e.g., here) and the Charbonneau Commission competition/corruption probe wrapping up in Quebec, it is increasingly important for bidders and tendering authorities to understand the basics of Canadian bid-rigging law. For governments and tendering authorities it is also important to enhance their abililties to detect coordinated bids and tenders. In this respect, I thought I would update my Canadian bid-rigging law page and add, among other things, a few key tips for tendering authorities to detect bid-rigging (see bottom of post).
September 23, 2014
In the advertising law world, general impressions matter – a lot. In Canada, the federal Competition Act even includes specific sections that provide that the general impression of a claim (i.e., not merely the literal meaning of an advertising claim or what may be included in disclaimers or contracts) is to be taken into account by a court or the Competition Tribunal in determining whether or not a claim is false or misleading.
September 11, 2014
Well summer is certainly over. The weather is distinctly cooler and “fall-like” and in the competition/antitrust law world the number of cases and antitrust agency activity is increasing again. In this respect, one interesting case that caught my eye earlier today was a German trade association case in which the German antitrust agency (the Bundeskartellamt) announced that it has imposed 6.2 million euros in further fines for alleged price-fixing by members of a concrete paving stone association and association executive (see: Bundeskartellamt imposes further fines on manufacturers of concrete paving stones on account of price-fixing agreements).
September 10, 2014
An interesting new Cardus report released yesterday (authored by Stephen W. Bauld and Brian Dijkema), entitled Hiding in Plain Sight: Evaluating Closed Tendering in Construction Markets, argues against closed tendering in public construction procurement. The report also includes discussions of recent Charbonneau Commission developments, construction unions and purported arguments for closed tendering in public procurement (such as for “safety” or “qualification” reasons). One of the central conclusions of the report is that local rules that limit competitive tendering are diametrically opposed to the key principles of public procurement: openness, fairness and transparency. Well worth a read (abstract below with a link to the complete report).
September 8, 2014
In an interesting case that caught my eye earlier today, the U.S. FTC announced a proposed settlement with Texas-based Applied Food Sciences Inc. (AFS) in relation to allegedly “baseless” green coffee extract weight loss claims.
Templates/precedents and checklists to run promotional contests in Canada
Templates/precedents and checklists to comply with Canadian anti-spam law (CASL)
