The Antitrust Week In Review

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

U.S. agencies probe Apple over slowing iPhones: Bloomberg.  The U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating whether Apple Inc. violated securities laws concerning its disclosures that it slowed older iPhones with flagging batteries, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.  “We have received questions from some government agencies and we are responding to them,” an Apple spokeswoman told Reuters.  “We have never, and would never, do anything to intentionally shorten the life of any Apple product, or degrade the user experience to drive customer upgrades,” she added.

2 More Lawsuits Accuse Chicken Producers of Fixing Prices.  Two major food distributors have filed their own federal lawsuits accusing Tyson Foods and other major chicken producers of fixing prices, but the industry denies any wrongdoing.  The lawsuits filed this week in Illinois by Sysco Corp. and US Foods Holding Corp. join several other lawsuits pending against the chicken producers.  The allegations date back at least to a 2016 lawsuit filed by New York-based Maplevale Farms.

Exclusive: Senator Schumer recommends his chief counsel for Federal Trade Commission.  U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer has recommended that the White House nominate one of his top aides, Rebecca Slaughter, to the Federal Trade Commission, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter.  Schumer is the Senate Minority Leader and Slaughter is his chief counsel who has worked for him since 2009, according to her LinkedIn page. She graduated from Yale Law School in 2008.

EU extends antitrust study of Bayer bid for Monsanto to March 12.  European Union antitrust investigators said they had extended their investigation into Bayer’s bid for Monsanto by five working days until March 12, without giving a reason.  The $66 billion deal would make Bayer the world’s largest pesticides and seeds company, an outcome already facing strong criticism from environmentalists and some farm groups.