Author: David Gallagher
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Applying Occam’s razor to the question of whether MIFs are by object infringements. Are we already starting to see UK diverge from Europe on what should go in the object box?
The CAT’s liability judgment in the Umbrella Interchange Fee case is not for the faint of heart. The former CAT President’s reasoning spans to around 170 pages and, as is often the case, contains passages of lucidity, some withering attacks on arguments he dislikes and also the occasional digression. Perhaps the most interesting issue for…
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“Like ships in the night” – the Court of Appeal’s Hydrocortisone judgment vindicates CMA and brings welcome order to a procedure that had been spinning out of control
The CMA’s pharma cases have generated a lot of work for the UK’s antitrust lawyers and economists, with a good proportion of practitioners having worked on at least one of Paroxetine, Phenytoin, Liothyronine or Hydrocortisone over the past few years. Dawn raids and large fines in these pharma cases highlighted the emergence of a more…
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CAT’s Liothyronine judgment is notable beyond excessive pricing cases
Last week’s Liothyronine judgment in the UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) is essential reading for antitrust practitioners. The CAT upheld the CMA finding of an abuse of dominance but reduced the total fine from £101m to £84m. Liothyronine is one of several excessive pricing cases the CMA has brought in recent years following concerns about…
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Interest rates, competition policy and inflation
How UK competition authorities might help the central bank execute its monetary policy to fight inflation by making instant access savings markets more competitive
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Misinformation, disparagement, opacity and throttling – how far does the ‘special responsibility’ go?
What links a multiple sclerosis drug ingredient, trains tickets in the South of England and iPhone batteries? Very little you might say? But in fact these subjects are all bound up in what some believe to be an ongoing extension to the frontiers on the law on abuse of dominance. Just how far does the…
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Antitrust and private equity – parental liability rules can allow authorities to claw back profits in UK and Europe
Private equity (PE) is in focus for antitrust authorities. In a merger control context, concerns around roll-up and keeping the bigger picture in mind occupy both Jonathan Kanter at the DOJ and Lina Khan at the FTC. My colleague Stijn Huijts covered this in his 13 June 2022 blog. Consideration of the PE angle is…
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Phenytoin – was it worth it?
On 21 July 2022 the CMA imposed fines of £63m on Pfizer and £6.7m on Flynn in relation to the excessive pricing of the generic drug phenytoin, an anti-epilepsy drug. This comes nearly six years on from the CMA’s first infringement decision in relation to the conduct. That first decision imposed fines of £84.2m on…