Wrapping Up an Active 2014
In their Antitrust Trade and Practice column, Shepard Goldfein and James A. Keyte write: The year 2014 was an active year in antitrust and competition law, both for governmental enforcement and private litigation. Governmental regulators continued to pursue a pattern of aggressive antitrust enforcement, ranging from merger challenges to criminal investigations. With respect to private litigation, key antitrust concepts continued to play out in federal district and appellate courts regarding the international reach of domestic antitrust law, liability for manipulating global financial benchmarks and the legality of reverse-payment settlement agreements.
January 12, 2015 at 08:22 PM
15 minute read
The year 2014 was an active year in antitrust and competition law, both for governmental enforcement and private litigation. Governmental regulators continued to pursue a pattern of aggressive antitrust enforcement, ranging from merger challenges to criminal investigations. With respect to private litigation, key antitrust concepts continued to play out in federal district and appellate courts regarding the international reach of domestic antitrust law, liability for manipulating global financial benchmarks and the legality of reverse-payment settlement agreements.
Merger Enforcement
For the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), 2014 marked a continuation of the regulators' aggressive approach to merger enforcement. Both the Justice Department and FTC achieved particular success with challenges to unwind consummated transactions that were not reportable under Hart-Scott Rodino.1
The Justice Department began the year securing a victory in its challenge to technology company Bazaarvoice's consummated $168 million acquisition of PowerReviews. Bazaarvoice, the “unquestioned market leading provider of Ratings and Reviews platforms” for eCommerce companies, acquired PowerReviews in 2012, but the Justice Department quickly alleged the transaction violated Section 7 of the Clayton Act.2
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