The Antitrust Week In Review

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

Senate panel to hear from U.S. antitrust bosses. The Senate Judiciary Committee’s antitrust subcommittee will hear from the top U.S. antitrust enforcers next month to discuss a wave of of major, controversial mergers.  The Justice Department is investigating two large insurance mergers—Aetna buying Humana, and Anthem buying Cigna—to insure they comply with antitrust law.  The Federal Trade Commission is suing to block Staples from acquiring Office Depot.  The hearing will be conducted on March 9 by the Senate Judiciary Committee’s antitrust panel.

Staples-Office Depot Merger Approved in Europe, With Concessions. The European Commission has approved the $6.3 billion merger of Staples and Office Depot after the companies agreed to sell some of Office Depot’s operations in Europe to ease competition concerns.  The approval comes just over two months after the U.S. Federal Trade Commission sued to block the transaction over similar competition issues.  European regulators and the FTC both raised concerns that the combination of the office supply companies would significantly reduce competition for office supply contracts sold to large companies.

EU investigating possible rigging of debt market, sources say. European Union antitrust regulators are investigating several banks for possible rigging of the $1.5 trillion government-sponsored bond market, according to sources.  The investigation is the latest in a series of actions against suspected wrongdoing in financial services, including alleged attempts to rig the markets for Libor and foreign exchange.

UK watchdog fines GSK $54 million over ‘pay-for-delay’ drug deals. Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority has fined GlaxoSmithKline  37.6 million pounds ($54.4 million) for market abuse in striking deals to delay the launch of cheap generic copies of its former blockbuster antidepressant Seroxat.  Generic drug companies involved, including Germany’s Merck KGaA, were also fined smaller amounts, bringing the total penalties to 45 million pounds.  The CMA’s action is the latest example of regulators trying to curb “pay-for-delay” deals by drug companies, and follows previous actions by U.S. and European antitrust authorities.