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

Google offers to treat rivals equally via auction –sources.  Google has offered to display rival comparison shopping sites via an auction, as it aims to stave off further EU antitrust fines, four people familiar with the matter said.  Google is under pressure to come up with a big initiative to level the playing field in comparison shopping, but its proposal was roundly criticised by competitors as inadequate, the sources said.  EU enforcers see the antitrust case as a benchmark for investigations of other areas dominated by the U.S. search giant, such as travel and online mapping.

Walgreens, Rite Aid Trim Store Purchase Deal to $4.38B.  Walgreens and Rite Aid have finally devised a deal between the nation’s largest and third-largest drugstore chains that will get past antitrust regulators.  The companies said Tuesday that they have Federal Trade Commission clearance for a slimmer version of a store-purchase agreement announced in June.  Walgreens will now spend $4.38 billion on 1,932 stores, three distribution centers and inventory.

Democratic senator lifts hold on Trump antitrust nominee –aide.  U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren has lifted her hold on President Donald Trump’s pick to run the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, a move that will allow the Senate to vote to confirm Makan Delrahim, a senior Republican aide said on Friday.  Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, had met with Delrahim early in September where she pressed him about her concerns about lobbying and political interference in antitrust.  Delrahim, a veteran of the Justice Department and a lobbyist, has been nominated to be assistant attorney general.

Bayer dismisses antitrust concerns about digital farming.  Bayer said it was unable to propose the sale of any digital farming assets to allay EU concerns about its planned $66 billion takeover of Monsanto.  The European Commission last month started an in-depth investigation into the German group’s plan to acquire the U.S. seeds maker.  Among its concerns, the regulator took issue with Bayer’s plan to create combined offerings of seeds and pesticides with the help of new digital farming tools, such as connected sensors, software and precision machines.

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

Google challenges record EU antitrust fine in court.  Google appealed on Monday against a record 2.4-billion-euro ($2.9 billion) EU antitrust fine, with its chances of success boosted by Intel’s partial victory last week against another EU sanction.  The world’s most popular Internet search engine, a unit of the U.S. firm Alphabet, launched its appeal two months after it was fined by the European Commission for abusing its dominance in Europe by giving prominent placement in searches to its comparison shopping service and demoting rival offerings.  The Luxembourg-based General Court, Europe’s second-highest, is expected to take several years before ruling on the appeal.

Murdoch Bid for Sky Control Hits New Bump as U.K. Official Hints at Inquiry.  Britain’s culture minister said on Tuesday that she was inclined to ask the country’s competition regulator to carry out a detailed review of a bid by Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox to take full control of the British satellite television giant Sky.  In an address to Parliament, the minister, Karen Bradley, said she was “minded” to refer the $15 billion deal to the Competition and Markets Authority for a more intensive inquiry into concerns about whether Fox would uphold broadcast standards in Britain and whether owning all of Sky would give it too much control of the British media.

FTC Head Pushes Back on Calls to Expand Antitrust Law.  Acting Federal Trade Commission Chairman Maureen Ohlhausen is emerging as a vocal defender of existing U.S. antitrust laws amid calls for sweeping changes to rein in dominant technology companies such as Amazon.com Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google.  Ohlhausen is delivering speeches this week that reinforce the government’s decades-old antitrust enforcement approach, which focuses strictly on markets and prices.  She is pushing back against public pressure to stop companies from becoming too powerful or to address social problems like wage stagnation.

Exclusive: AT&T weighs divestiture of Latin American TV assets – sources.  AT&T is evaluating a sale of its pay TV operations in Latin America as it seeks to pay down debt following its planned $85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner Inc. (TWX.N), people familiar with the matter said on Friday.  AT&T is working with a financial adviser to field interest in the assets, which could be valued at more than $8 billion, the people added, asking not to be named because the matter is private.  Liberty Global PLC, Spanish telecommunications company Telefonica SA and Millicom International Cellular SA,  a wireless player in Latin America, are some of the companies that could express interest in all or parts of AT&T’s Latin American markets, according to the people.

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

EU regulators halt review of Qualcomm-NXP deal for second time.  EU antitrust regulators have halted for a second time their review of U.S. smartphone chipmaker Qualcomm’s $38-billion bid for NXP Semiconductors after the companies failed to provide key details of the deal.  The European Commission paused its investigation on Aug. 17, a filing on its website showed.  It had previously set a Dec. 6 deadline for its decision.  “Once the missing information is supplied by the parties, the clock is re-started and the deadline for the Commission’s decision is then adjusted accordingly,” EU competition regulators said in an email.

EU Top Court Orders Reexamination of Intel Antitrust Fine.  The European Union’s top court on Wednesday sent back a case on a billion euro fine against chip maker Intel Corp. for further legal examination.  Wednesday’s ruling had been eagerly awaited for its implications on the powers of the antitrust office of the EU.  Now the case could be in limbo for months, if not years.

Apple lawsuits against Qualcomm can proceed, U.S. judge rules.  Apple Inc.’s 11 foreign lawsuits against Qualcomm Inc. can proceed while the company’s dispute plays out in the United States, a U.S. federal judge in San Diego ruled.  Qualcomm and Apple are facing off in federal court over Qualcomm’s licensing for modem chips, which provide mobile data connectivity to devices like the iPhone.  Because those chips have become a standard across the mobile phone industry, Qualcomm is required to license them on fair terms.

Trump’s antitrust pick meets with Elizabeth Warren: source.  Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, met on Wednesday with President Donald Trump’s pick to run the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, where she pressed him on political interference in antitrust and lobbying, according to a source familiar with the discussions.  The source did not say if the meeting was sufficient to convince Warren to support Makan Delrahim.  She has reportedly put a “hold” on his confirmation to be assistant attorney general.

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

Landmark Intel judgment critical for other EU antitrust cases.  Europe’s top court will rule on Wednesday whether U.S. chipmaker Intel offered illegal rebates to squeeze out rivals in a judgment that could affect EU antitrust regulators’ cases against Qualcomm and Alphabet’s Google.  The ruling by the Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the European Union could also provide more clarity on whether rebates are anti-competitive by nature or whether enforcers need to prove the anti-competitive effect.  The European Commission in a 2009 decision said that Intel tried to thwart rival Advanced Micro Devices by giving rebates to PC makers Dell, Hewlett Packard, NEC and Lenovo for buying most of their computer chips from the company.

Alphabet’s Google acts to comply with EU antitrust order.  Google has submitted details of how it plans to stop favoring its shopping service to comply with a European Union antitrust order, according to EU regulators.  The world’s most popular Internet search engine, a unit of Alphabet Inc., had earlier said it would meet the EU deadline to do so.  Google was hit with a record 2.4 billion euro fine from the EU over the practice in June and was ordered to come up with proposals to end the anti-competitive behavior.

Linde, Praxair Get Second Antitrust Request From FTC.  Linde and Praxair said they were responding to a second request from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission regarding their planned $74 billion merger and were in a pre-notification phase with the European Commission.  The German and U.S. industrial gases groups said in a U.S. regulatory filing they still expected the all-share merger of equals, which is subject to antitrust review in approximately 24 jurisdictions, to close in the second half of 2018.  “This is a typical step in review of a transaction of this size, and was expected,” Linde said of the second request from the FTC.

German carmakers may face ‘very high’ cartel fines: EU’s Vestager.  German carmakers could face “very high” fines if suspicions of collusion prove true in court, European Union Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager told Business Insider.  But she said it was too soon to speculate on “the extent of possible sanctions and the timing of an EU Commission decision”, the online business news site cited her as saying.  European Union and German antitrust regulators are investigating whether VW, Porsche, Audi. BMW and Mercedes-Benz owner Daimler held meetings to discuss suppliers, prices and standards to the disadvantage of foreign carmakers.