Antitrust Law Blog : Antitrust Lawyer & Attorney : Sheppard Mullin Law Firm : Antitrust Law Blog

On July 10, 2009, the U.S. Department of Transportation ("DOT") granted antitrust immunity to Continental Airlines for its planned participation in the Star Alliance, allowing Continental to coordinate international air services with other Star Alliance members without being subject to antitrust liability. The Star Alliance is a joint venture that includes over 20 member airlines. The Star ATI Alliance is a nine-member antitrust-immune subset of the Star Alliance. Continental is expected to join the Star Alliance and become the newest Star ATI member on October 24, 2009, when its current agreement with rival SkyTeam Alliance expires. The DOT also approved a new international joint venture between Star ATI members Continental, Air Canada, Deutsche Lufthansa Airlines and United Air Lines to be called Atlantic Plus-Plus, or A++. A++ members will be able to jointly arrange capacity, sales and marketing and share revenue on a portion of their international air services, also without being subject to antitrust liability.
 

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The new Department of Justice, with Christine Varney at the helm of its antitrust division, has changed course to finally (and formally) align itself with the Federal Trade Commission in opposition to reverse payment settlements in the pharmaceutical industry. On July 6, 2009, the DOJ filed a brief with the Second Circuit (at the court's invitation) in In re Ciproflaxin Hydrochloride Antitrust Litigation which marks the DOJ's first formal opposition to reverse payment settlements, i.e., settlements of patent disputes in which the brand drug-maker makes a "reverse" or "exclusion" payment to the would-be generic competitor to delay its entry into the relevant drug market. This represents a significant departure from the DOJ of the Bush era, which took a stance contrary to the FTC's before the U.S. Supreme Court, even criticizing its sister agency's "high degree of suspicion of any reverse payment settlement."
 

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On June 4, 2009, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) gave judgment on a reference from the Dutch courts on the interpretation of Article 81 of the EC Treaty and ruled that a single meeting between five Dutch mobile phone operators in which the companies had discussed the reduction of commission payments made to dealers for the sale of mobile phone contracts to consumers was sufficient to establish a breach of the EU's competition rules. See Case C-8/08, T-Mobile Netherlands BV and Others v Raad van bestuur van der Nederlands Mededingingsautoriteit (June 4, 2009).
 

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In June 2009, media executive John Malone agreed to pay $1.4 million for violating the pre-merger reporting and waiting requirements of the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 as amended (HSR Act). The payment settles a complaint for civil penalties that alleges Malone violated the HSR Act in August 2005, when he acquired voting securities of Discovery Holding Co. (Discovery) without complying with the HSR Act's pre-merger notification and waiting period requirements. The complaint also charges that he continued to violate the HSR Act through July 2008 by acquiring additional voting securities of Discovery without complying with the same requirements.
 

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On November 16, 2008, just after President Barack Obama’s election, the president-elect stated in an interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes that the Bowl Championship Series’ (BCS’s) current system should be dismantled and replaced with a playoff system:
 

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