I spoke at IBC’s Advanced EU Competition Law event in Brussels in November, presenting an annual overview of cartel developments with Johan Ysewyn of Covington & Burling. Julie Adyns did the hard work of putting the slide pack together.

 Therefore, to be possess’d with double pomp, To guard a title that was rich before, To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, To throw a perfume on the violet, To smooth the ice, or add another hue Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish, Is wasteful and ridiculous excess. Advocates can excel at this, both public and private; often not to the benefit of the positions they advocate. A notifying party once wanted to define the relevant product market on one of my cases as “leisure time activities”.  It would have included everything from taking a nap, walking the dog, grabbing a beer, or watching television. Among other things. Unsurprisingly the […]

Sophie Lawrance of Bristows has written a post on the US Department of Justice investigation into high frequency trading, a practice most recently brought into public view by Michael Lewis’s book Flash Boys. In addition to saying nice things about this blog, Sophie drew my attention to the US Ninth Circuit Allied Orthopedic case which, although it came out a few months before my publication deadline for Competition Law and Regulation of Technology Markets, I’m afraid I missed at the time. A Per Se Test for Legality It’s an interesting case: the Ninth Circuit applied a per se legality test to issues of product redesign, an approach which was roundly – and rightly – criticised in this article by some […]

I have slightly rewritten my post on Inability to pay and significant loss of asset value, to make the text – and argument – flow a little better. No change of substance or argument was intended.