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

Qualcomm, NXP receive antitrust approval.  Smartphone chipmaker Qualcomm Inc has received approval from U.S. antitrust regulators for its proposed $47 billion acquisition of NXP Semiconductors NV, Qualcomm said in a statement on Tuesday.  The waiting period required for companies under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act has expired, the company said.  Additionally, Qualcomm said it is extending its cash tender offer for all outstanding shares of NXP.

US, EU Clear Chinese Takeover of Syngenta.  U.S. and European regulators have cleared a Chinese conglomerate’s proposed $43 billion acquisition of Swiss agribusiness giant Syngenta on condition it sells some businesses to satisfy anti-monopoly objections.  The Federal Trade Commission’s announcement comes alongside the approval by European regulators of the purchase by state-owned ChemChina.  It would be China’s biggest foreign acquisition to date.  ChemChina, also known as China National Chemical Corp., agreed to sell businesses that make an herbicide, an insecticide and a fungicide whose combined market shares with Syngenta would harm competition, the FTC and European Commission say.

McDonald’s accused of antitrust practices in France, Italy and Germany.  McDonald’s was accused in three separate complaints Tuesday of improperly driving up consumer costs in France, Italy, and Germany by forcing the company’s franchisees to swallow antitrust practices.  The fast-food giant abused its dominant market positions by requiring its franchise holders in the three European nations to display higher prices than those at company-operated sites, according to complaints that labor and consumer groups filed with competition authorities in those countries.  McDonald’s also charges excessively higher rents for franchise locations and imposes terms that restrict franchisees from shifting to other brands, the complaints allege.

Judge Puts Seattle Law Allowing Ride-Hailing Union on Hold.  A federal judge in Seattle on Tuesday temporarily blocked the city’s first-in-the-nation law allowing drivers of ride-hailing companies such as Uber and Lyft to unionize over pay and working conditions.  U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik’s ruling came after he heard arguments last week in a case brought by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.  The chamber argues that federal antitrust and labor law trumps the city’s statute.  The judge said the chamber was unlikely to succeed on those claims or its chances were not clear but he put the law on hold because the lawsuits raised serious questions.

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

U.S. Top Court Rejects Bid to Revive $7.25 Billion Credit Card Settlement.  The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a bid by retailers to revive a $7.25 billion antitrust settlement they reached with Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. over claims the card networks improperly fixed credit and debit card fees.  The high court left in place a 2016 lower court decision that threw out the settlement on the basis that it was unfair to retailers that stood to receive no payments and derive no other benefits.  Companies including Amazon.com Inc., Costco Wholesale Corp. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. opposed the settlement and challenged it on appeal. Card issuers American Express Co. and Discover Financial Services also objected to the settlement.

Trump Appoints One of His Lawyers to Review Mergers.  President Trump named Makan Delrahim, a former government antitrust enforcer and corporate lobbyist, to lead the Justice Department’s review of mergers and acquisitions.  The appointment is being closely watched because companies across industries have been hoping that the new Republican administration will be more permissive with mergers.  The Obama administration had blocked dozens of blockbuster deals over the past eight years, including AT&T’s bid for T-Mobile in 2011 and Comcast’s merger with Time Warner Cable in 2015.  Mr. Delrahim, who serves as legal counsel to the president, will be quickly tested in his new position by AT&T’s $85 billion bid for Time Warner, which is set to be reviewed this year.  Other mergers under review include Dow Chemical’s bid for Dupont and Bayer’s acquisition of Monsanto.

EU Vetos Deutsche Boerse-London Stock Exchange Merger Deal.  An attempted merger between the German and British stock exchanges was struck down by European regulators on Wednesday, formally ending a deal that unraveled in the wake of Britain’s vote to leave the European Union.  “We could not approve this merger on the terms … proposed,” said European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, blocking the 29 billion-euro ($31 billion) deal to combine Deutsche Boerse and the London Stock Exchange.  A merger would have created Europe’s biggest stock exchange. But the European Commission objected, saying the deal, which was the pair’s fifth attempt to combine, would have resulted in a monopoly in the processing of bond trades.

U.S. Judge Throws Out Many Metals Price-Fixing Claims.  A U.S. judge on Tuesday significantly narrowed private litigation accusing several big banks and German chemical giant BASF SE of conspiring to suppress platinum and palladium prices.  U.S. District Judge Gregory Woods in Manhattan dismissed claims against BASF, Switzerland’s UBS Group AG, South Africa’s Standard Bank Group Ltd. and the London Platinum and Palladium Fixing Co.  In a 104-page decision in the proposed class-action case, Woods said dismissal was appropriate because of a lack of proof these defendants conspired to fix prices, had sufficient ties to the United States, or both.  The judge also dismissed claims that Goldman Sachs Group Inc and HSBC Holdings Plc violated the U.S. antitrust law known as the Sherman Act, saying the plaintiffs were not “efficient enforcers” of that law.

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

EU Antitrust Regulators Want More Power for National Watchdogs.  EU antitrust regulators outlined a proposal on Wednesday aimed at giving national watchdogs in the 28-country bloc more power to crack down on anti-competitive practices and also to ward off political interference.  The move by the European Commission came after a study it commissioned found shortcomings in the way competition agencies were equipped and structured, preventing them from doing their work effectively.  Antitrust experts say the EU antitrust authority was also concerned about the ousting of several high level officials at some national agencies by their governments in the last two years.

Preliminary Approval Given to $208.7 Million NCAA Settlement.  About 40,000 college football and basketball players will not need to submit a claim to receive a portion of the $208.7 million the NCAA will pay to settle a federal class-action lawsuit that claimed the value of their athletic scholarships was illegally capped.  U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken in California gave preliminary approval Tuesday to the settlement that was agreed upon by the NCAA and plaintiffs in February.

DirecTV Settles U.S. Antitrust Lawsuit Over Dodgers Channel.  DirecTV settled a U.S. antitrust lawsuit that accused the satellite-television provider of colluding with its competitors during a 2014 standoff with Time Warner Cable Inc. over a channel devoted to the Los Angeles Dodgers.  DirecTV won’t share competitively sensitive information with rivals and agreed to a compliance program to make sure it abides by the settlement, according to an agreement filed Thursday in federal court in Los Angeles.

Container Shipping Lines Ordered to Testify in U.S. Sector Probe.  The U.S. Justice Department has ordered top executives from several container shipping lines to testify in an antitrust investigation over practices by an industry that is the backbone of world trade, the companies said on Wednesday.  The world’s biggest container group, Denmark’s A.P. Moller-Maersk, together with second largest line MSC of Switzerland, Germany’s Hapag Lloyd, Taiwan-based Evergreen and Hong Kong-based Orient Overseas Container Line said their executives were among those who had been subpoenaed.

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.

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

Twenty U.S. States Join Generic Drug Price-Fixing Lawsuit.  California, Illinois and 18 more states have joined a lawsuit filed last year alleging that six companies, including Mylan NV and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., conspired to push up prices of two generic drugs, the Connecticut attorney general’s office said on Wednesday.  Connecticut, which leads the group, and 19 other states filed the original lawsuit on Dec. 15.  The state lawsuit is part of a broader effort by the federal government, states and the U.S. Congress to address the rising cost of many generic drugs.

AT&T-Time Warner Deal May Have Easier Path to Approval.  AT&T’s $85 billion purchase of Time Warner may be getting an easier path to approval after the chief telecommunications regulator says it isn’t likely to review the deal.  Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai is telling The Wall Street Journal that the agency likely won’t be involved because of changes in the deal’s structure.

Connecticut Says Will Not Drop Opposition to Anthem/Cigna Deal.  Connecticut said on Wednesday it had no plans to drop its opposition to health insurer Anthem’s proposed purchase of rival Cigna, even if the U.S. Justice Department decides to settle with the companies.  Anthem, which lost a district court fight brought by the Justice Department and 11 states, has kept pressing its bid to buy Cigna by appealing a lower court injunction stopping the deal and by reaching out to the new administration of President Trump in hopes of hammering out a settlement.  Connecticut said it was not giving up.

Murdoch’s Fox Seeks EU Okay for $14.4 Billion Sky Takeover Bid.  Rupert Murdoch’s Twenty-First Century Fox has asked EU antitrust regulators to approve its $14.4 billion takeover bid for European pay-TV company Sky, a filing on the European Commission showed on Friday.  The EU competition enforcer will decide by April 7 whether to clear the deal, demand concessions or kick off a five-month long investigation.