Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, WORTH NOTING—Other Antitrust and Trade Regulation developments, (Apr 21, 2016)

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

ACQUISITIONS & MERGERS NEWS: The staff of the FTC Bureau of Competition has asked the West Virginia Health Care Authority to deny Cabell Huntington Hospital Inc.’s application for approval of a cooperative agreement relating to its proposed acquisition of St. Mary’s Medical Center. The FTC has filed an administrative challenge to the proposed deal, alleging that it would establish a dominant firm with near monopoly power in the general acute care inpatient hospital services and outpatient surgical services markets in various counties in West Virginia and Ohio. Under recently approved legislation, certain cooperative agreements approved and subject to supervision by the Health Care Authority are exempted from state and federal antitrust laws. In an April 18 letter, the FTC staff contends that the reduction in competition resulting from the proposed cooperative agreement far outweighs the claimed benefits.

ACQUISITIONS & MERGERS NEWS: The European Commission has conditionally approved the proposed acquisition of Equens and it subsidiary PaySquare by payment services and terminals provider Worldline. The deal would combine two large payment systems operators that are active across the full value chain in both payment processing and card processing services, according to the EC. Citing competition concerns with regard to merchant acquiring services in Belgium and Germany, the EC conditioned approval on the divestment of PaySquare’s Belgian subsidiary, as well as certain other licensing, monitoring, and access commitments with regard to Worldline’s Poseidon software, which relates to merchant acquiring in Germany.

ANTITRUST NEWS: Consumer Watchdog is urging the FTC to file antitrust charges against Google for the same reasons that the EC is alleging antitrust violations—that Google is abusing its dominant position by imposing restrictions on Android device manufacturers and mobile network operators. “Google engages in exactly the same anti-competitive, unfair and abusive practices in the United States,” said John Simpson, director of the group’s Privacy Project, in a statement. “Our antitrust enforcers need to step up and do their job instead of letting the Europeans do it for them.” Consumer Watchdog claims that Google spent about $16 million on federal lobbying in 2015, and Mr. Simpson said, “Google is well connected at the highest levels of government and throws its money around…But our antitrust enforcers can’t let that sway them. They’ve got the facts and need to act.”

CONSUMER PROTECTION NEWS: The FTC has updated the start times for its upcoming Fall Technology Series events: Ransomware (September 7); Drones (October 13); and Smart TV (December 7). Each of the three events will now begin at 1 p.m. Eastern Time. The half-day seminars will examine the consumer protection issues being raised by each of the three new and evolving technologies.

News: AcquisitionsMergers Antitrust ConsumerProtection FederalTradeCommissionNews