Antitrust

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On 14 December 2010, the UK’s Office of Fair Trading (OFT) announced that it is to undertake a study of competition in the UK private healthcare market. Such studies, which typically last for 6-12 months, can lead to the OFT making recommendations to government on how competition could be improved and/or a full market investigation reference to the Competition Commission (CC). …
Read More UK: OFT to Launch Market Study into Private Healthcare

On 26 August 2010, the European Commisson (the Commission) opened a competition investigation into the maritime insurance sector, in particular the agreements between the Protection & Indemnity (P&I) Clubs within the International Group of P&I Clubs (the International Group), a worldwide association of thirteen P&I Clubs. …
Read More EU: Commission Announces Investigation into International Group of P&I Clubs

Nearly three years after a federal district court dismissed with prejudice a nationwide class action alleging antitrust and RICO claims against insurers and brokers in connection with contingent commission arrangements, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals has revived a limited swath of plaintiffs’ claims.  The Third Circuit concluded that plaintiffs’ allegations regarding contingent commission arrangements alone were insufficient to support antitrust and RICO claims. …
Read More Third Circuit Revives Limited Portions of In Re: Insurance Brokerage Antitrust Litigation (MDL 1663)

Last week, the Connecticut Supreme Court issued a ruling in which it placed several restrictions on the uses that the Connecticut Attorney General (AG) may make of documents subpoenaed from a Florida-based insurer during an antitrust investigation. …
Read More Connecticut Supreme Court Limits Attorney General’s Power to Disclose Documents Subpoenaed from Insurer

Eithne McCarthy, from the Financial Services Unit of the European Commission’s Competition Directorate General (DG Comp), made a presentation on the new Insurance Block Exemption Regulation (BER) to the Law Society’s Competition Section on 13 April 2010. …
Read More EU/UK: Presentation by Eithne McCarthy – the new Insurance Block Exemption Regulation

On 24 March 2010, the European Commission (the Commission) adopted its long-awaited new block exemption regulation for the insurance sector, which will come into force on 1 April 2010.  Block exemptions are an instrument of European competition law that remove certain categories of agreement from the prohibition of anticompetitive agreements set out in Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (previously Article 81 EC Treaty). 

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Read More EU: European Commission Adopts New Competition Block Exemption Regulation for the Insurance Sector

On Monday, February 22, Representatives Tom Perriello (D-Va.) and Betsy Markey (D-Colo.) introduced H.R. 4626, the Health Insurance Industry Fair Competition Act, to repeal the McCarran-Ferguson Act antitrust exemption for the business of health insurance. …
Read More House Introduces Health Insurance Bill to Repeal Antitrust Exemption

Each year the FTC is required by statute to adjust the thresholds for Hart-Scott Rodino pre-merger filings.  HSR filings and consequent regulatory approval of the transaction are required prior to closing a transaction involving the acquisition of assets (including exclusive licenses) or securities that meets the operative thresholds. 

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Read More United States Federal Trade Commission Lowers Pre-Merger Filing Thresholds

As previously reported here, the European Commission (the Commission) published its revised draft BER for the insurance sector on 5 October 2009.  Regular followers of the blog will recall that the draft regulation proposes to renew two of the four categories of agreements exempted by the current BER, namely information exchange and insurance pools, with certain amendments. 

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Read More EU: Revised Draft Block Exemption Regulation (BER) for Insurance Sector – End of Consultation Period Looming