Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, WORTH NOTING—Other Antitrust and Trade Regulation developments, (Feb 6, 2015)

A periodic roundup of other items of interest to the Antitrust and Trade Regulation community:

ANTITRUST NEWS: A settlement has been reached in an action where bankrupt national electronics retailer, Circuit City Stores, Inc. alleged a price fixing conspiracy among manufacturers of thin-film transistor liquid crystal display panels, AU Optronics Corporation and AU Optronics Corporation America. The federal district court in San Francisco issued an order vacating a hearing and denying a motion to continue the trial as moot. Instead, the court scheduled a Case Management Conference for Friday, June 5, 2015. AU Optronics was accused of violating the Sherman Act, the California Cartwright Act, the California Consumer Protection and Unfair Competition Laws, and the Illinois Antitrust Act (Siegel v. AU Optronics Corp., Dkt. 3:10-cv-05625-SI).

ANTITRUST NEWS: Another former Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd. (K-Line) executive has pleaded guilty for his role in a price-fixing and bid-rigging conspiracy for international ocean shipping services, the Department of Justice announced today. Takashi Yamaguchi—a general manager and executive officer in K-Line’s car carrier division—conspired to allocate customers and routes, rig bids, and fix prices for the sale of international ocean shipments of roll-on, roll-off cargo, such as cars, trucks, and construction equipment, to and from the United States and elsewhere, including the Port of Baltimore. Yamaguchi was sentenced to serve a 14-month prison term and pay a $20,000 criminal fine for his participation in the conspiracy. The plea agreement was a result of an ongoing investigation into price fixing, bid rigging, and other anticompetitive conduct in the international roll-on, roll-off ocean shipping industry.

PRIVACY NEWS: After a public comment period, the Federal Trade Commission has approved final orders resolving complaints that health billing company PaymentsMD, LLC and its former CEO misled thousands of consumers by failing to adequately inform them that the company would obtain their detailed medical information. In its complaints (In re Matter of PaymentsMD, LLC and In re Matter of Michael C. Hughes, File No. 132-3088), the FTC charges that PaymentsMD and its former chief executive officer, Michael C. Hughes, used the sign-up process for a “Patient Portal”—where consumers could view their billing history—as a pathway to deceptively seek consumers’ consent to obtain detailed medical information about the consumers. Under the terms of the settlements, PaymentsMD and Hughes must destroy any information collected related to the Patient Health Report service. In addition, the respondents are banned from deceiving consumers about the way they collect and use information, including how information they collect might be shared with or collected from a third party, and they must obtain consumers’ affirmative express consent before collecting health information about a consumer from a third party.

News: Antitrust Privacy