January 8, 2007 | Posted By Sheppard Mullin
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European Commission Adopts Revised Leniency Notice to Reward Companies that Report Cartels

On December 7, 2006, the European Commission adopted a revised Notice on Immunity from Fines and Reduction of Fines in Cartel Cases (the “Leniency Notice") which clarifies the information an applicant needs to provide to the Commission to benefit from immunity, and a reduction of fines. The Leniency Notice also introduces a marker system for immunity applicants, and a procedure to protect corporate statements made by companies from being made available to claimants in civil damage proceedings. The revisions take account of two public consultations, conducted in February, and October 2006. On announcing the new changes, the European Competition Commissioner, Ms. Neelie Kroes, stated,

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January 8, 2007 | Posted By Sheppard Mullin
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DOJ/FTC Highlights

Reforms to Second Request Procedures Announced

  • On December 15, the Antitrust Division released its amendments to its 2001 Merger Review initiative. The Division hopes that the changes will shorten the amount of time spent on merger reviews and reduce the amount of documents produced by focusing the Division on the most relevant issues and time periods. In addition, the Division also made changes to its model second request.

     

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January 8, 2007 | Posted By Sheppard Mullin
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International Highlights

  • On December 6, 2006, the head of Korea's Fair Trade Commission, Kwon Oh-seung, announced that the KFTC has evidence that four oil refinery firms colluded to fix the price of oil. The announcement follows an investigation the KFTC launched in 2006.  The KFTC may issue a follow-up announcement in the next few months that it is taking further action against the refiners. The new evidence suggests a pattern of collusion in the South Korean market for petrochemicals. In 2000, the KFTC imposed fines against five oil refinery firms who engaged in big rigging and restrained the supply of fuel for military use. In 1988, the KFTC imposed fines on six refinery firms who lessened competition in the market for petrochemicals by fixing the basic market shares of 11 products, including gasoline and kerosene.

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    January 8, 2007 | Posted By Sheppard Mullin
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    "Well Pleaded Conspiracy to Refuse to Deal with Distributor Survives Motion to Dismiss: The Moral: Just Because Conduct is not "Per Se" Illegal, Does Not Mean That It Is "Per Se" Legal

    Plaintiff Bearing Distributors, Inc. (BDI), a dealer, brought an action against Rockwell Automation, Inc. (Rockwell), and a competing dealer, Motion, alleging that Rockwell and Motion conspired to terminate it for refusing to abide by Rockwell's resale price maintenance (RPM) policy.  Rockwell contended that it terminated BDI, because it refused to impose a 25% minimum markup on BDI sales from "unauthorized" locations.  As the complaint failed to allege an RPM agreement between Rockwell and Motion, Motion moved to dismiss. It claimed that it was lawful for Rockwell to terminate a dealer, even at the suggestion of a competing dealer, where there was no agreement on price, or price levels.

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