The Antitrust Week In Review

Here are some of the developments in antitrust news this past week that we found interesting and are following.

Amex to Ask for Stay of Ruling Prohibiting Merchants From Promoting Other Cards.  American Express has announced that it will be seeking a stay of a ruling that could ban the company’s longstanding practice of prohibiting merchants from encouraging customers to pay with lower-cost cards.  Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York ruled last month that the practice violates U.S. antitrust laws.  The court is currently in the process of considering proposed remedies.

EU antitrust regulators to investigate ecommerce.  European Union regulators plan to investigate ecommerce in an effort to remove barriers to cross-border trade in the 28-nation bloc, according to the EU’s antitrust chief.  The investigation could lead to action against companies that deliberately block online sales.  European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said she decided to launch the inquiry because such anticompetitive hurdles are hampering the growth of online sales.

F.T.C. Addresses Its Choice Not to Sue Google.  Several members of the Federal Trade Commission are defending the actions taken by the agency in its antitrust investigation of Google, nearly a week after an internal document from 2012 came to light, revealing that some staff attorneys  had wanted to sue Google for anticompetitive practices.  However, the FTC’s five commissioners ultimately voted not to sue.  The three commissioners who were at the FTC at that time defended the decision and issued a joint statement asserting that the report represented “a fraction” of the “voluminous record and extensive internal analysis” that was conducted on the matter.

German Business Leaders Clash With Google, Antitrust Officials.  German business leaders are clashing with Google and European Union antitrust officials in a heated public debate over how to deal with the power of U.S. Internet firms.  Mathias Döpfner, the chief executive of German publishing house Axel Springer SE, and Deutsche Telekom AG Chief Executive Timotheus Höttges have both attacked the business practices of certain U.S. Internet firms in Europe, and expressed frustration at the lack of action by competition authorities.  The dispute is occurring as the EU prepares to announce the next steps in its long-running antitrust investigation of Google, which has been fruitless to date, despite three attempts at a settlement.