Antitrust News & Notes
According to a Pittsburgh newspaper, Sherwin-Williams Co. and PPG Industries Inc. will pay $39 million to settle a class-action antitrust lawsuit ”accusing the companies of inflating prices for auto refinishing paint. PPG Industries … will pay $23 million and Sherwin-Williams … will pay $16 million ….”
Apple recently disclosed that it is facing “an additional antitrust lawsuit over the tight connection between the iTunes Store and the iPod. It was filed by an iPod owner in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California last year. Two similar consumer suits are currently pending in the U.S. and France.” See also this InfoWorld article.
PBS’ Robert X Cringley made several predictions for 2007. Of interest to us antitrust geeks is number 7 (number 6 is posted below to provide necessary context):
6) Sony solves Blu-ray laser diode problem just in time for IBM to suffer production difficulties with the Cell processor. More bad news for Sony. 7) The Sony news is SO bad that it deserves two predictions. I would predict the fall of CEO Howard Stringer again if there were clearly somebody at Sony who wants his job. The business is in such difficulty that Microsoft is discussing internally how to help Sony from going under, since that would create a raft of antitrust problems for Redmond. I am not making this up.
Finally, it is not too early to register for the ABA Section of Antitrust Law’s Spring Meeting on April 18-20 in Washington, D.C.
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