The Department of Justice’s antitrust division has achieved “many important...
The Department of Justice’s antitrust division has achieved “many important successes” in its enforcement efforts in recent months, said Rachel Brandenburger, the division’s special international adviser, in a speech Thursday at a Brussels conference held by the American Chamber of…
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Commerce. She cited its antitrust suit against Apple and two major U.S. and European publishers -- Macmillan and Penguin Group -- over e-book sales. Three other publishers -- Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster -- reached a settlement with Justice in August to remove themselves from the lawsuit, agreeing to pay $69 million to states and end their so-called agency agreements with retailers that allowed them to set the retail price of the e-books. The division’s investigation in preparation for the lawsuit is one recent example of “valuable and effective” cooperation between antitrust enforcement agencies, Brandenburger said, according to a prepared version of her speech. “Throughout the investigation, we worked collaboratively with the European Commission. ... While we have long cooperated with other competition agencies in merger and cartel enforcement matters, e-books demonstrates that case cooperation can be effective across the entire range of competition enforcement, given the right tools and the right attitude” (http://xrl.us/bn46fj). The division has also actively discussed important competition and intellectual property policy issues in recent months, Brandenburger said, noting that in July then-Acting Assistant Attorney General Joseph Wayland testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on policy options the U.S. International Trade Commission could use with respect to possible exclusion orders in cases involving standard essential patents. The antitrust division and the FTC will hold a joint workshop next week in Washington on how patent assertion entities’ activities affect innovation and competition, Brandenburger said.