The Antitrust Week In Review

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

Microsoft Seeks EU Approval for LinkedIn Buy.  Microsoft sought EU antitrust approval on Friday for its $26 billion bid for social network LinkedIn, a spokesman said on Friday, kicking off a month-long review by regulators of its largest deal.  U.S. software company Salesforce has criticized the takeover, saying it threatens innovation and competition.  Antitrust regulators in the United States, Canada and Brazil have already cleared the deal.

Google Gets Second Extension to Reply to EU Charge on Shopping.  Alphabet unit Google has been given about three more weeks to counter EU antitrust charges that it unfairly demotes rival shopping services in internet search results, a move that could further delay regulators’ decision on the six-year-old case.  The U.S. technology giant was due to respond to the accusations on Thursday, but requested more time to prepare its defense.  The company now has until Nov. 7, a European Commission spokesman said.

South Korea Regulator Says to Examine Google’s Android Agreements.  The head of South Korea’s antitrust regulator says the agency will closely examine whether Google’s agreements with handset manufacturers on the U.S. firm’s Android mobile operating system limits market competition.  Jeong Jae-chan, chairman of the Korea Fair Trade Commission, said the agency will re-examine anti-competition issues over Google’s policies on the Android platform, but did not elaborate on specifics.  The agency said in August it was looking into whether the U.S. firm, whose corporate parent is Alphabet Inc., has violated South Korean anti-competition laws but did not elaborate on what potential charges might be brought against Google.

EU’s Vestager Does Not Rule Out Action Over Google Scraping Complaint.  The EU’s antitrust regulator, who has accused Alphabet unit Google of stifling competition in three separate cases, left open the possibility of further action against the U.S. technology giant.  Complaints have been made about Google’s practice of copying content from websites without payment in what is known as scraping.  Complainants include News Corp, Getty Images and German publishers.