The Antitrust Week In Review

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

Appeals Court Nixes $7.25B Credit Card Swipe Fee Settlement.  A $7.25 billion settlement between merchants and Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. over credit card transaction fees was rejected Thursday by a federal appeals court, a ruling praised by a retail trade association as a victory for consumers.  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Manhattan said the 12 million merchants covered by the antitrust class action were inadequately represented by law firms that gave merchants who stood to gain little or nothing no opportunity to opt out of the deal.   Jeffrey Shinder, managing partner of Constantine Cannon, which is representing dozens of major retailers challenging the settlement, including The Gap Inc., Barnes & Noble Inc., Starbucks Corp., Nike Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and The Wendy’s Co., praised the ruling, calling it “a vindication of pretty much everything we argued.”

EU Regulators Readying Third Google Antitrust Charge: Sources.  Alphabet’s Google may face a third EU antitrust charge as soon as next month, this time focusing on its revenue mainstay AdWords ad placement service, according to sources.  The world’s most popular Internet search engine is already under fire from the European Commission for promoting its shopping service at the expense of rivals and for using its Android mobile operating system for smartphones to squeeze out competitors.  The Commission has asked Google rivals to share information related to search advertising with the tech giant, a step suggesting the EU competition enforcer could be poised to hit Google with a fresh charge, the sources said.

Slowdown in Merger Deals Attributed to Political Uncertainty.  Uncertainty is being blamed for a string of declines in acquisitions announced during the first half of the year in almost every sector, location and size compared with the same period in 2015.  About $1.6 trillion worth of deals were announced this year through Thursday, according to data compiled by Thomson Reuters.  That represented a 19 percent slump from the first half of the year in 2015 and a slight increase from the same period in 2014.  Mergers and acquisitions bankers and lawyers have attributed the slowdown to concerns about mergers being blocked by antitrust regulators after some prominent deals fell apart for that reason.

Supreme Court Agrees to Review ATM Fee Antitrust Lawsuit.  The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear appeals by Visa Inc., Mastercard Inc. and several U.S. banks seeking to throw out lawsuits claiming they conspired to inflate the prices of ATM access fees in violation of antitrust law.  The high court will hear the companies’ bid to overturn an August 2015 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that revived three related class action lawsuits.  The appeals court said a district court erred when it concluded that consumers had no standing to sue and had not adequately alleged antitrust violations.