Italy restricts Sky on exclusive deals

Italy’s Competition Authority has prohibited Sky from distributing online video content on an exclusive basis, as a condition for allowing the broadcaster to acquire pay-television assets from rival Mediaset.

General Court upholds telecoms joint venture approval

The European Commission was right to allow a €3.5 billion joint venture between Vodafone and Liberty Global in 2016, the EU’s General Court has ruled.

UK accuses drugmakers and distributor of non-compete agreements

The UK’s competition enforcer has provisionally found that four companies agreed not to compete in the supply of an anti-nausea tablet to the country’s national health service, resulting in a 700% rise in the price.

Hong Kong enforcer mulls appeal despite winning

Hong Kong’s competition watchdog remains undecided about whether it will appeal against a ruling that requires it to prove competition violations beyond a reasonable doubt, the enforcer’s chief executive has said.
Not all wins are wins: The Asia-Pacific Tipline for 24 May 2019

Hong Kong’s competition enforcer is debating whether to appeal against judgments it won in the territory’s first two cartel cases. Because the rulings handed down last week by Hong Kong’s Competition Tribunal serve as the foundational jurisprudence for competition enforcement, the enforcer is assessing how the court’s holding on standard of proof will affect future enforcement. Meanwhile, it has been a bad week for Qualcomm. In addition to its woes in California federal court, a Taiwanese government inspector has opposed a settlement between the US chipmaker and the country’s competition enforcer.
Chile Supreme Court bans LATAM joint venture

Chile’s Supreme Court has agreed with the country’s competition authority, striking down the competition tribunal’s conditional approval of LATAM Airlines’ deals with American Airlines and International Airlines Group.

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GCR USA

FTC win is “not about rate regulation”, Hoffman says

If Judge Lucy Koh’s ruling against Qualcomm withstands appeal, it will change how the chip maker licenses its patents, but the head of the Federal Trade Commission’s bureau of competition has denied that it would regulate prices.

Uber’s business model is price-fixing, says Steinbaum

Even under the consumer welfare standard, Uber’s entire business model is essentially fixing prices and should be considered a harm to competition, an economics professor has said.

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Features

Year in preview: the app economy in Korea

Tens of thousands of Korean taxi drivers have fiercely protested in Seoul to boycott the launch of an Uber-like transportation service. Following two drivers’ public suicides, the new era of such platforms is sparking intense debate over whether consumer welfare trumps all in one of Asia’s largest cities.

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