Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, WORTH NOTING—Other Antitrust and Trade Regulation developments, (Jul 29, 2015)

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

ANTITRUST NEWS: Bert Foer, Senior Fellow at the American Antitrust Institute (AAI), has reviewed the book SuperCooperators: Altruism, Evolution and Why We Need Each Other To Succeed. Foer calls the 2011 book, by Harvard University professor of biology and mathematics Martin A. Nowak, partly a memoir and partly an essay on the development, through computer simulations, of explanations for how cooperation evolves out of competition. Nowak applies the term “SuperCooperators" to the human species, reflecting his awareness of the importance of cooperation in nature generally and particularly in human survival. Foer’s extended book review introduces Nowak in the context of criticisms that Darwin underestimated the importance of cooperation, while stressing competition. It summarizes five evolutionary mechanisms that Nowak has found to be explanatory, notes the implications generally, and then uses the described advances in game theory as a base for exploring possible implications for antitrust, which Foer conceives as an enterprise for authoritatively establishing boundaries between approved and disapproved forms of cooperation, rather than for maximizing competition.

ACQUISITIONS & MERGERS NEWS: The European Commission (EC) has approved under the European Union (EU) merger regulation the acquisition of VSE of Slovakia, by RWE of Germany, the EC announced today. RWE is active throughout the energy value chain. VSE is active in the retail supply and distribution of electricity in Slovakia. The Commission concluded that the proposed acquisition would not raise competition concerns because of the limited overlaps and the presence of other strong players on all markets. The transaction was examined under the simplified merger review procedure.

News: AcquisitionsMergers Antitrust