Dismissing complaints from Microsoft and Yahoo, the EU Competition Commission cleared Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick. The Antitrust Division (U.S. Department of Justice) had done so after completing its Hart-Scott-Rodino Act review in December 2007. According to the Associated Press, the EU noted that Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL would discipline any attempt by Google/DoubleClick to raise the prices for web-placed advertisements post-merger.

February 27, 2008. Microsoft became the first company that the EU Competition Commission has fined (in its 50 year history) for non-compliance with an antitrust decree. The decree was based on the determination that Microsoft abused its dominant position. To remedy the violation, the decree required Microsoft to disclose interoperability information to developers of work group server operating servers (on reasonable terms) which would allow them to compete. The EU concluded that royalty rates which Microsoft imposed were unreasonable and therefore violated the antitrust decree. Below is a link to the proceedings against Microsoft in the EU. http://www.ec.europa.eu/comm/competition/antitrust/cases/microsoft/index.html

February 19, 2008.  The Antitrust Division conditioned approval of Thomson Corporation’s $17 billion acquisition of Reuters Group PLC on divestitures of financial datasets and licensing of related intellectual property.  Thomson and Reuters compete head-to-head in providing three types of financial data used by investment professional to make investment decision.  The Antitrust Division analyzed three relevant product markets — fundamentals data, earning estimates data and aftermarket research reports.  The parties combined market shares post-merger would have been more than 50 percent and up to 90 percent.  The Antitrust Division required Thomson to sell the relevant datasets and license its relevant intellectual property to a suitable buyer.  The consent agreement contains a hold separate provision but did not require the parties to “fix-it-first.”  The DOJ and EU Competition Commission cooperated in their investigations.  The EU required different remedies that had no bearing in the U.S.   Attached are the Antitrust Division’s press release and Competitive Impact Statement. DOJ Press Release (Thomson) Competitive Impact Statement (Thomson)