Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, WORTH NOTING—Other Antitrust and Trade Regulation developments, (Mar 9, 2015)

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

ANTITRUST NEWS: The American Antitrust Institute (AAI) recently announced the acceptance of submissions for the Jerry S. Cohen Award for Antitrust Scholarship for a writing published in 2014. The scholarship, which was created through a trust administered by the Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll law firm in honor of its late founder Jerry S. Cohen, will be presented at the AAI’s Annual Conference on June 18 in Washington, D.C. To be considered eligible for the award, submissions should reflect a concern for economic justice principles, dispersal of economic power, and maintenance of effective limitations on economic power or federal statutes designed to protect society from anticompetitive activity. Submissions should be emailed to Daniel A. Small (dsmall@cohenmilstein.com) with a subject line “Jerry S. Cohen Award Submission” or mailed to Mr. Small at Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll, 1100 New York Avenue, Suite 500, Washington, D.C. 20005.

ACQUISITIONS & MERGERS NEWS: The European Commission (EC) has approved under the European Union (EU) Merger Regulation the acquisition of CNP Barclays Vida y Pensiones Compañía de Seguros of Spain by Barclays Bank of the UK, the Commission announced today. Barclays is a global financial services provider. CNP BVP provides insurance and pension products in Spain, Portugal, and Italy. The Commission concluded that the proposed acquisition would raise no competition concerns because the companies had moderate combined market shares in the markets concerned and Barclays already had joint control over CNP BVP together with another company.

FRANCHISING & DISTRIBUTION NEWS: The federal district court in Allentown, Pennsylvania has denied motions by Summit Foods, a candy distributor in the movie theater concession industry, to dismiss a parallel proceeding or transfer the action to the New Jersey federal district court. Summit entered into an exclusive distributorship with candy manufacturer Just Born, Inc., which allegedly was terminated a year later. Summit sued a competing distributor in New Jersey state court, claiming that the competitor’s distribution of Just Born products constituted tortious interference with its exclusive distributorship agreement. The action was removed to federal district court after Just Born filed the current Pennsylvania case, asserting that the exclusive distributorship arrangement had been terminated and Summit continued to distribute Just Born products as a nonexclusive distributor. The court held that, under the first-filed rule, the first-filed case is the action first in time either by removal or actual filing in federal court. Since Summit’s New Jersey state court action was removed after Just Born filed its complaint in Pennsylvania, the motion to dismiss was denied. The motion to transfer was also denied after the court balanced the factors of the plaintiff’s choice of forum, the location of books and records, and the convenience of the witnesses (Just Born, Inc. v. Summit Foods Enterprises, Inc., March 6, 2015, Leeson, J.).

News: AcquisitionsMergers Antitrust FranchisingDistribution