Reckitt Benckiser fined £10.2m by OFT – The Guardian
“Drug company stopped NHS doctors prescribing cheaper alternatives to its heartburn medicine Gaviscon.”
The Guardian, 15th October 2010
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
Category: competition
OFT to merge with Competition Commission – OUT-LAW.com
“The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is to be merged with the Competition Commission (CC) in a Government bid to ‘increase the clarity’ of competition law enforcement.”
OUT-LAW.com, 14th October 2010
Source: www.out-law.com
Resident who fired catapult at gang of troublemakers wins court battle – Daily Telegraph
“A vigilante resident who was sued after firing a catapult at local troublemakers has been vindicated by a judge.”
Daily Telegraph, 29th September 2010
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
OFT launches online hotel booking probe – OUT-LAW.com
“The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is investigating whether the sale of hotel room bookings on the internet breaches competition law, looking into whether an allegedly long-established pricing mechanism is anti-competitive.”
OUT-LAW.com, 20th September 2010
Source: www.out-law.com
Ofcom ‘to review’ News Corp bid for BSkyB – BBC News
“The BBC has learned that Ofcom will be asked to review News Corporation’s bid for BSkyB once a formal offer is made.”
BBC News, 15th September 2010
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
Cooper Tire & Rubber Company Europe Ltd and others v Dow Deutschland Inc and others – WLR Daily
“Once the Commission of the European Communities had found that an undertaking had participated in anti-competitive practices the undertaking to could not rely on the English domestic law concept of separate corporate entity to argue that the undertaking as a whole or a parent company in the group had not participated in those practices. Where it was alleged in a claim against the defendants that representatives of those alleged to have been party to the anti-competitive behaviour had had discussions to co-ordinate that behaviour and that those discussions had led to each of the defendants co-ordinating their anti-competitive behaviour, that was sufficient to allow the claim against the defendants to continue even if none of the defendants fined by the commission was domiciled in England.”
WLR Daily, 26th July 2010
Source: www.lawreports.co.uk
Please note once a case has been fully reported in one of the ICLR series the corresponding WLR Daily summary is removed.
Ad watchdog clears Costa over Starbucks comparison – OUT-LAW.com
“Costa Coffee was entitled to make a claim that Starbucks drinkers preferred its coffee based on the results of a survey it carried out, regulator the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ruled.”
OUT-LAW.com, 17th June 2010
Source: www.out-law.com
Competition Commission confirms ban on point-of-sale PPI – The Guardian
“Watchdog rejects appeal, saying ruling will bring more choice and cheaper rates to payment protection insurance market.”
The Guardian, 14th May 2010
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
Competition Commission clears music biz merger – OUT-LAW.com
“The Competition Commission has given the all clear to a merger between two live music companies for the second time. Its first decision in the case was quashed by the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT).”
OUT-LAW.com, 7th May 2010
Source: www.out-law.com
Sky forced to cut price of Sports channels – Daily Telegraph
“Sky should face a cap on the amount it can charge rival broadcasters to show its premium sports channels, the media regulator said in a ruling that could herald a significant shake-up of the pay-TV market.”
Daily Telegraph, 31st March 2010
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
Royal Bank of Scotland fined £28.6m for breaching competition law – The Guardian
“Royal Bank of Scotland has been fined £28.6m for breaching competition law after sharing confidential details about the pricing of its commercial loans with rival staff at Barclays.”
The Guardian, 30th March 2010
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
Safeway proceeds with groundbreaking attempt to sue ex-employees for price fixing – OUT-LAW.com
“Safeway has been given permission to continue a groundbreaking lawsuit against former employees and directors which seeks to recover competition law fines from the ex-employees and directors involved in the breaches.”
OUT-LAW.com, 22nd January 2010
Source: www.out-law.com
Sky forced to slash ITV holding as court sets benchmark for corporate influence – OUT-LAW.com
“Pay TV company BSkyB has been told that it must follow the Competition Commission’s orders and sell over half of its stake in broadcaster ITV at a loss of around £500 million. The Court of Appeal backed the Commission’s ruling.”
OUT-LAW.com, 21st January 2010
Source: www.out-law.com
British Sky Broadcasting Group plc and another v Competition Commission and another – WLR Daily
“In deciding whether or not the recommendation of the Competition Commission that a proposed merger should be prevented as contrary to the public interest, the Competition Appeal Tribunal was not required to exercise a greater intensity of judicial review than would be applied on a normal judicial review application. S 120(4) of the Competition Act 1998 required the appeal tribunal to apply the same principles as would be applied by a court on an application for judicial review. It would fly in the face of the section’s words if the tribunal, as a hyper-competent specialised tribunal, were required to undertake a more intensive review.”
WLR Daily, 21st January 2010
Source: www.lawreports.co.uk
Please note that once a case has been fully reported in one of the ICLR series the corresponding WLR Daily summary is removed.
Sky ordered to sell down stake in ITV – The Guardian
“The court of appeal today ordered BSkyB to sell down its 17.9% stake in ITV.”
The Guardian, 21st January 2010
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
Police worker shot in training given six-figure payout – Daily Telegraph
“A police control room operator who was shot during a training exercise has agreed a six-figure compensation payout.”
Daily Telegraph, 20th January 2010
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
Regina v IB – WLR Daily
Regina v IB [2009] EWCA Crim 2575; [2009] WLR (D) 357
“A ‘cartel offence’ under s 188 of the Enterprise Act 2002 was not a ‘national competition law’ within the meaning of Council Regulation (EC) No 1/2003, so that a Crown Court had jurisdiction to try a prosecution for such an offence although it was not a competition authority designated under art 35 of that Regulation.”
WLR Daily, 10th December 2009
Source: www.lawreports.co.uk
Please note once a case has been fully reported in one of the ICLR series the corresponding WLR Daily summary is removed.
Probe into Friends Reunited sale – BBC News
“ITV’s £25m sale of social networking website Friends Reunited has been referred to the Competition Commission.”
BBC News, 2nd November 2009
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
Watchdog gives pub industry the all-clear – The Independent
“Britain’s pub industry was given the all-clear by competition watchdogs today following a ‘super complaint’ about so-called beer ties.”
The Independent, 22nd October 2009
Source: www.independent.co.uk
