Antitrust

A key U.S. senator is urging the Justice Department to keep up its investigation into the antitrust implications of the Internet advertising partnership that Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. plan to launch this month. In a letter, Wisconsin Democrat Herb Kohl, chairman of the Senate Judiciary antitrust subcommittee, said his panel concluded that "important competition issues are raised by this transaction." He urged the department to "continue to monitor the state of competition in this industry."

WASHINGTON - Europe's top antitrust official said that Google Inc. may have abused its dominance to squelch online competition and urged the company to settle allegations to avoid formal charges that could carry a hefty fine. A quick resolution to the investigation that began in 2010 would benefit the fast-moving online marketplace, Joaquin Almunia, head of competition policy for the European Commission, said in a rare public call to end the case quickly. A settlement "at an early stage is always preferable to lengthy proceedings," Almunia said.

Lipitor is the most prescribed name-brand drug in America - nearly 3.5 million people take it every day to control their cholesterol. Since the statin entered the market in 1997, it's earned New York-based pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. $81 billion, making it the best-selling prescription drug of all time, according to IMS Health, a Danbury, Conn.-based healthcare information company. So when Lipitor's patent protection came to an end Nov. 30 and a generic alternative became available, an awful lot of patients had a decision to make: Should they stick with the drug they knew or switch to something less expensive?

SAN FRANCISCO - Escalating an antitrust investigation of Google Inc.'ssearch business, the Federal Trade Commission has hired an outside lawyer to lead the probe and perhaps take the case to court. The FTC said Beth Wilkinson, a former Justice Department prosecutor who played a key role in the conviction of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, will take over the Google investigation. The hiring, which ramps up the investigation into allegations that Google unfairly ranks search results to favor its own businesses and increase advertising rates for competitors, came as Google fired back at the Federal Communications Commission in a separate battle involving its Street View service.

The Supreme Court, on a tie vote, cleared the way Monday for Detroit's two daily newspapers to merge their business operations. But the justices left open the pivotal question of what conditions justify giving newspapers a virtual business monopoly. As a practical matter, the high court action ends a 13-year-old newspaper war in the nation's sixth-largest metropolitan area and permits the Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News to share their business, printing and advertising operations.

Haagen-Dazs has won the first round in its food fight with Double Rainbow Gourmet Ice Creams of San Francisco as a federal court approved the super-premium ice cream maker's policy of prohibiting its distributors from selling competing brands. U.S. District Court Judge Charles A. Legge in San Francisco ruled Wednesday that the Teaneck, N.J.-based producer of ice cream with lots of buttermilk and little air did not break the law when it abruptly ended a distribution agreement with Two Count Co.

WASHINGTON -- Antitrust officials are expected to announce Wednesday that they are filing suit against Apple Inc. and five major book publishers for allegedly colluding to fix the price of e-books. News reports said the Justice Department sued Apple, along with Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, Hachette and Penguin. Atty. Gen. Eric Holder and the head of the Justice Department's antitrust division, Sharis Pozen, have scheduled a news conference in Washington for 9 a.m. PDT to announce "a significant antitrust matter.

U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric Holder and a team of top federal officials on Friday pledged a sweeping examination of alleged monopolistic practices in the food sector, and promised to bust those who violate antitrust laws. But it was the issue of competition -- and veiled nods to the government's current probe into seed giant Monsanto Co.'s marketing practices -- that emerged as a dominant theme of the day. Speaking at a public workshop organized by the Justice Department and the U.S. Department of Agriculture at a community college, Holder told the packed conference hall that "concrete action" would emerge from the unusual coordination between the two federal agencies.

The NFL players, like football fans everywhere, will be focused on the playoffs this month and the fierce competition for a spot in the Super Bowl. Their lawyers, however, will be keeping an eye on the Supreme Court. On Jan. 13, the pro football owners will be asking the high court to rule for the first time that the NFL is shielded from antitrust laws because, while its teams compete on the playing field, they function in business as a "single entity." If the justices were to agree, the ramifications could be significant, not just for football but all pro sports leagues, say experts in sports law. Freed from the antitrust laws, owners could get together to restrict salaries for players and coaches and raise prices for everything from tickets to stocking caps.

Intel Corp. and the Federal Trade Commission are in talks to settle an antitrust lawsuit in which the Santa Clara, Calif., company has been accused of strong-arming clients into buying its computer chips. According to a statement from Intel, the company has until July 22 to "review and discuss a proposed" settlement. Intel said it could not comment because the terms of the proposed consent order were confidential. If the two parties do not reach an agreement by that date, the case could go before an administrative law judge in September.

Is Google on the verge of an antitrust showdown with federal regulators? The Federal Trade Commission, which is investigating whether Google has abused its colossal share of the U.S. search market and put competitors at a disadvantage, has unsheathed a new weapon in its year-old probe of the search giant: It has hired a prominent outside litigator, known for her firepower in the courtroom, to oversee the investigation. It's the strongest signal yet that the agency is preparing to take on Google.

The European Union's antitrust regulators have approved Sony Corp.'s $2.2-billion acquisition of EMI's publishing business, clearing a major hurdle in Sony's ambition to create the world's largest music publishing group with rights to about 2 million songs, including some by David Bowie, Stevie Wonder and Pink. The deal announced Thursday still needs to clear U.S. regulators, who have historically been more lenient than their European counterparts. Nevertheless, antitrust experts cautioned against celebrating too soon.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Apple, Google, Intel, Pixar and other high-tech companies will face an antitrust lawsuit that alleges they illegally conspired not to poach each other's staffers. San Jose U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh rejected a motion to dismiss the claims Wednesday night. In a 29-page opinion, she ruled that the “Do Not Cold Call” agreements among the defendants probably resulted “from collusion, and not from coincidence.” Other defendants include Adobe, Intuit, and Lucasfilm.

The judge overseeing an antitrust lawsuit against Apple Inc. over e-book prices was told by a lawyer that two publishers that earlier settled with the Justice Department are now close to a deal with 15 states. Three publishers named in the U.S. government's antitrust lawsuit — CBS Corp.'s Simon & Schuster, Lagardere's Hachette Book Group and News Corp.'s HarperCollins — settled their cases after the complaint was filed April 11. A group of 15 states and Puerto Rico filed a similar suit this month.

Apple Inc., responding for the first time to antitrust charges levied against it and five major book publishers this week, denied that it had engaged in price-fixing to inflate prices paid for electronic books. In a statement to The Times on Friday, Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr said that the Department of Justice's accusation against Apple "is simply not true. " Neumayr said customers have benefited from e-books that are more interactive and engaging and, "just as we've allowed developers to set prices on the App Store, publishers set prices on the iBookstore.

WASHINGTON - Former Apple Inc. Chief Executive Steve Jobs was a key player in a conspiracy with five major book publishers to drive up the price of digital books, federal and state officials said in antitrust lawsuits filed against the companies. Jobs helped orchestrate a complex price-fixing plan that cost consumers tens of millions of dollars over the last two years by boosting the price of many new releases and bestsellers by $3 to $5 each, federal investigators said. Apple even proudly described the maneuver - which gave the iPad maker a guaranteed 30% commission on each e-book sold through its online marketplace - as an "aikido move," referring to the Japanese martial art, according to the lawsuit.

Federal regulators on Wednesday accused Intel Corp. of abusing its market dominance to stifle competition in a lawsuit that, instead of seeking monetary damages, would impose more painful, fundamental changes on the way the world's leading computer chip maker does business. The suit by the Federal Trade Commission reaches further than any of the other regulatory cases brought in recent years against Intel, which commands about 81% of the world's market for central processing units, the brains of computers and other electronic gear.

Stephen Greenberg, baseball's deputy commissioner, said Tuesday that the Seattle Mariners probably won't be sold by opening day and that threats to the game's antitrust exemption were "the wrong approach." A group 60% financed by a Japanese businessman has offered to purchase the team from Jeff Smulyan for $100 million. Officials in St. Petersburg, Fla., have been anticipating that the deal will not gain approval and have indicated they will attempt to buy the team. Sen. Slade Gorton (R-Wash.

WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department on Wednesday sued  Apple Inc. and five major book publishers for allegedly colluding to fix e-book prices. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in New York, alleges that Apple and the publishers "reached an agreement whereby retail price competition would cease (which all the conspirators desired), retail e-book prices would increase significantly (which the publisher defendants desired) and Apple would be guaranteed a 30% 'commission' on each e-book it sold (which Apple desired)

The Justice Department and attorney generals from 16 states sued Apple Inc. and five major book publishers, alleging they colluded to raise the price of electronic books. The government said the conspiracy cost consumers more than $100 million over two years and added $2 to $5 to the price of new releases and bestsellers. Here are answers to some questions related to the case: Who are the publishers? Three of the publishers -- Hachette, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster - have settled with the federal government.