The Antitrust Week In Review

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

Google foe takes Android complaint to regulators.  Open Internet Project, whose members include Axel Springer and Getty Images, on Tuesday accused Alphabet unit Google of imposing anti-competitive curbs on Android smartphone makers, its second complaint against the U.S. tech giant.  The group, which lodged a complaint about Google’s comparison shopping service with the European Commission about three years ago, urged the EU competition authority to take action.  “Google once again, in breach of EU antitrust rules, abused its dominant position by imposing restrictions on Android device manufacturers and mobile network operators, aiming to preserve and strengthen its dominance in general internet search,” OIP said in a statement.

Chicago hospital system scraps merger over U.S. antitrust concern.  NorthShore University HealthSystem said on Tuesday it was scrapping plans to merge with another Chicago hospital system after losing a court fight with U.S. antitrust regulators who said the merged hospital system would control more than half the area’s general acute care inpatient services.  NorthShore said in a statement that a federal judge had ruled for the Federal Trade Commission, which argued that NorthShore’s deal to merge with Advocate Health Care violated U.S. antitrust law and would harm consumers by hiking healthcare costs and reducing incentives to upgrade services and improve quality, according to the December, 2015 complaint.

Turkey to Investigate Antitrust Complaint Against Google.  Google faced another regulatory challenge last week when the authorities in Turkey opened an investigation into whether the search giant’s popular Android software had broken the country’s antitrust rules.  The investigation in Turkey is the latest legal problem for Google, which faces three separate competition charges in Europe and has already been found to breach antitrust legislation in Russia.  United States officials have also investigated the company over its Android and search services, but they have not brought a case.

Court Upholds Foundation’s Antitrust Immunity.  A federal appeals court on Thursday ruled Edinboro University and its foundation are protected from antitrust laws after a group of local landlords claimed a conspiracy to monopolize the student housing market around the public university in northwestern Pennsylvania.  But the decision more narrowly interprets the university’s governmental antitrust immunity than did a lower court’s ruling.