Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, WORTH NOTING—Other Antitrust and Trade Regulation developments, (Sep 8, 2016)
Organizations Mentioned:Public Citizen | Rite Aid Corp. | Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc.
A periodic roundup of other items of interest to the Antitrust and Trade Regulation community:
ACQUISITIONS & MERGERS NEWS: Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. reported today that, in order to gain antitrust approval of its pending acquisition of Rite Aid Corporation, the parties will likely be required to divest more than the 500 stores previously communicated. In a statement, Walgreens said that it expects that fewer than 1,000 stores will be required to be divested and that the acquisition will close in the second half of calendar 2016. The planned combination of the drug store chains was announced in October 2015.
ADVERTISING NEWS: Public interest groups Public Citizen, Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, and Center for Digital Democracy are calling on the FTC to look into paid endorsements on Instagram. Yesterday, the groups sent a letter to the agency, calling for an investigation of the practice of non-disclosed advertising through "influencer" user profiles on Instagram. The groups expressed concern that, despite well-established FTC policy regarding disguised advertising, "the agency is failing to keep pace with developments in the social media space."
PRIVACY NEWS: Ransomware has become the greatest threat in cyberspace and the Federal Trade Commission is eager to partner with the private sector and other government agencies to counter it, FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez said today at an FTC ransomware workshop. "Criminals have created a new market for personal information, making ransomware more profitable than other scams," she commented. "The threat is unlikely to go away anytime soon." She recounted cases in which miscreants hijacked hospitals’ data networks and sought money to make the networks usable again. The FTC will bring enforcement actions against companies that fail to take reasonable steps to protect personal data and seek ways to protect data from ransomware and other types of cyber attacks.
Companies: Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc.
News: AcquisitionsMergers Advertising Antitrust Privacy CyberPrivacyFeed FederalTradeCommissionNews