ABA Antitrust Spring Meeting
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An Acuris Company 26-29 March 2019, Washington DC ABA Antitrust Spring Meeting parr-global.com PaRR ABA Antitrust Spring Contents 2 Meeting Contents Introduction 03 Europe, the Middle East and Africa 04 Americas 29 Asia-Pacific 71 parr-global.com PaRR ABA Antitrust Spring Introduction 3 Meeting Introduction Further information As regulators and lawyers gathered in Merger control policies were on the minds of Get in touch for a trial Washington last week for the American Asian enforcers with Singapore and Philippines Bar Association’s 67th Antitrust Law Spring representatives flagging planned changes Meeting, the lingering tensions surrounding to policies and thresholds, while Hong Kong Contact Sean Lanzner the US-China trade war were overshadowed and Malaysia spoke of the need to introduce by talk of convergence and outreach. PaRR’s merger control provisions. Cross navigation content global team worked the panels and fireside We hope you enjoy reading this compendium requires an internet connection. chats to bring our readers the essential news of conference coverage and – as ever – from this mainstay of the global antitrust welcome your feedback. agenda. This year’s event saw the US Department of Justice’s assistant attorney general, Roger P. The PaRR team Alford, announce that the agency’s cherished multilateral framework on procedures (MFP) is set to see buy-in from several competition authorities under the existing International Competition Network (ICN), with a second path planned for non-members. The director general of the Antimonopoly Bureau of China’s newly formed State Administration for Market Supervision, Wu Zhenguo, told PaRR on the sidelines of the conference that the country is mulling joining the MFP, and the EU’s competition head Margrethe Vestager, welcomed the move to streamline the proposal through the ICN. Elsewhere, Vestager took the opportunity of what is likely her last Spring Meeting in the role of commissioner to stress the need for new tools to tackle data issues. parr-global.com PaRR ABA Antitrust Spring Europe, the Middle East 4 Meeting and Africa Europe, the Middle East and Africa parr-global.com PaRR ABA Antitrust Spring Europe, the Middle East 5 Meeting and Africa EC official warns of ‘renaissance’ of online sales bans as new business models emerge by Khushita Vasant Antitrust authorities will have to come to terms concentrated in online markets,” Kramler said. websites (9%), the EC said. The agency’s Return to Contents with new kinds of online sales restrictions in findings are based on information provided by He said “compliance by design is the both horizontal and vertical scenarios as new 1,800 e-commerce companies, and an analysis catchword” for consideration going forward. kinds of business models emerge and online of around 8,000 distribution contracts. markets become concentrated, a senior official On the subject of potential cumulative effects from the European Commission today (27 of bidding restrictions, Kramler said the more March) warned. of these bidding restrictions one might have in the market, the more interesting they become “We see kind of a renaissance of online sales from an antitrust perspective. restrictions - either vertical or horizontal - which comes with the new business models,” “In essence, I think this is a space to be Thomas Kramler, head of the digital single watched” as “there seem to be quite some market task force in the EC’s competition bidding restrictions out there in the market,” directorate said. Kramler said. He noted, however, they were not very widespread. He explained that with the world moving online there might be a different market set-up and “So, this is something that antitrust authorities one might see “much more cumulative effects will have to grapple with going forward either in of resale price maintenance (RPM) than there a horizontal or a vertical scenario,” he added. were before”. He gave the example of a scenario in which a The EC official made the remarks during a company may have restrictions on what they panel discussion titled “Digital RPM: Online can bid on in relation to online advertising Sales, Platforms & Algorithms” at the American which directly harms consumers who may see Bar Association’s 2019 antitrust spring meeting fewer product choices and information on ads. in Washington, DC. The EC’s e-commerce sector inquiry from 2016 There may also be inter-brand effects where showed that around half of all online retailers if everybody uses algorithms and sells on the are subject to manufacturer recommendations same platform, the prices are very transparent or restrictions on the way they sell their which makes it easier to deploy algorithms to products, as reported. match prices of competitors as well as retailers. Widespread restrictions include fixed or “That might be something one has to think recommended prices (42% of retailers), limits about. There could be collusive elements that on cross-border sales (11%), and bans on we might see if the market becomes more retailers listing products on price comparison parr-global.com PaRR ABA Antitrust Spring Europe, the Middle East 6 Meeting and Africa EC concentration study sees increase in four sectors by Luuk de Klein An industry study by European Commission Return to Contents (EC) economists is almost complete and has found increased concentration in four sectors: Information and communication technology (ICT), transport, basic manufacturing and finance, EC chief economist Tommaso Valletti said. “Finally, we are coming to an end,” Valletti said today (27 March) during an agency economists’ roundtable at the ABA Spring Meeting in Washington DC. Valletti and his team are currently looking at concentration trends in Europe, along the lines of similar US research. The chief economist announced the study last year, mentioning high margins as a potentially problematic issue in merger reviews, in response to US studies finding a rise in concentration. “We look[ed] at data from 20 years and we tried to come up with definitions of a [specific] market, not just a broader industry, but close enough to antitrust market definitions,” he said. The researchers saw evidence of certain US trends in Europe as well, albeit not to the same extent, Valletti said. The level of concentration in Europe is lower than that in the US but it is rising, he said, with four sectors – ICT, transport, basic manufacturing and finance – standing out. parr-global.com PaRR ABA Antitrust Spring Europe, the Middle East 7 Meeting and Africa Norway to ratify Nordic agreement in July by Khushita Vasant Norway is set to finalise amendments to their respective authorities can cooperate Return to Contents its law on dawn raids and other technical and exchange information, which is in the final aspects over the next few months and will stages of implementation, opening the door ratify an agreement it struck with other Nordic to unprecedented information-sharing and countries over enforcement cooperation mutual assistance, as reported by PaRR. in July, a senior official from the Norwegian While cooperation on cases is far-reaching competition authority today (27 March) told within the EU’s European Competition Network PaRR. (ECN), non-members such as Norway and “[We have to make] quite minor changes so Iceland do not benefit from this framework. we have to [have] the possibility to do dawn The agreement entered into force in Sweden raids on each other’s behalf [in our respective and Finland in November 2018 and in Denmark jurisdictions],” Karin Stakkestad Laastad, soon after. The two non-ECN members -- legal director at the Norwegian competition Norway and Iceland -- are still to ratify the authority or Konkurransetilsynet told PaRR. framework. She explained that these minor changes to the A spokesperson for the Konkurransetilsynet agreement need specifying in the legislation told PaRR earlier this year that a hearing first. process in relation to the changes required in Laastad was speaking on the side-lines of the law was conducted recently. the American Bar Association’s 2019 antitrust spring meeting in Washington, DC. She said the document with the proposed changes was sent by Norway’s economy ministry to the country’s Parliament last week. “I expect it [the amended document] to enter into force by 1 July,” she said, adding the Nordic agreement would be ratified shortly after in the same month. In September 2017 the Nordic countries – Sweden, Finland, Norway, Iceland and Denmark (including Greenland and the Faroe Islands) – struck a cooperation agreement, under which parr-global.com PaRR ABA Antitrust Spring Europe, the Middle East 8 Meeting and Africa Swiss authority to conclude FX, precious metals cases this summer by Khushita Vasant Switzerland’s competition authority is set to In August 2017, another WEKO official told Return to Contents conclude its investigation into manipulation PaRR that the agency was at a fact-gathering in the forex and precious metals price-fixing stage in the metals price-fixing case. and probe before summer, a senior official told explained that the “complex correlation” PaRR in Washington, DC today (27 March). between the Libor and the forex rate-rigging proceedings has been making it difficult to Olivier Schaller, vice director of the secretariat predict when the precious metals case will see at the Wettbewerbskommission (WEKO) said a conclusion. the cases are likely to be concluded in July and the agency is set to announce an update During a fire-side chat at the ABA, Schaller on the cases during the presentation of an said that the agency hired specialists for the annual report next week. long and short-term in the financial sector to make safeguard its competence while “The Libor case will be concluded later this investigating large banks, particularly in view year,” Schaller told PaRR on the side-lines of of two such - Credit Suisse and UBS – being the American Bar Association’s 2019 antitrust headquartered in the Alpine country.