• Reuters reports on Ace. Ltd.’s $9 million settlement with Pennsylvania as result of “practices include[ing] bid rigging and market collusion.”
• Trade Regulation Talk reports on the House Antitrust Task Force’s hearing on the Antitrust Modernization Commission’s recommendations.
• Geoffrey Manne & Josh Wright at Truth on the Market jointly report on the recent GMU/Microsoft Conference on the Law and Economics of Innovation.
• Finally, at the Volokh Conspiracy, William Birdthistle is guest blogging this week about soccer and some suggested rule changes.

The Washington Post is reporting that:

The U.S. Soccer Federation is formulating a bid to host the 2018 World Cup, an effort that could bring the quadrennial tournament here for the first time in 24 years as well as position the United States to stage the 2014 event in case a South American country is not ready. USSF President Sunil Gulati said yesterday that the federation will form an organizing committee at this weekend’s annual meetings in Los Angeles and prepare to formally advise FIFA, the sport’s world governing body, of its intentions to compete for the 2018 tournament. England is also planning a bid. The host is likely to be chosen in 2012.

As regular readers know, Hanno, Manfred and myself are all likely to purchase tickets to as many games as we can.

According to numerous news reports, such as this one from Reuters, Italy defender Marco Materazzi claims that the “verbal exchange he had with Zinedine Zidane which led to the infamous head butt that sent the French star off in July’s World Cup final” was about Zidane’s sister.  Specifically Materazzi said:

“I held his shirt but don’t you think it is a provocation to say that ‘if you want my shirt I will give it you afterwards’? I replied to Zidane that I would prefer his sister, that is true. I brought up his sister and that wasn’t a nice thing, that is true” ….

This is weak.  First, I heard worse, much worse on the playground when I was in fifth grade.  And that’s on a Catholic school playground in suburban Cincinnati.

Second, everyone knows that the proper response to an insult about your sister is not a head butt but a retort involving his/her mother.

Technorati Tags: 2006 World Cup

According to International Hearld Tribune (via the New York Times):

It is a fact that England missed more penalties in AufSchalke Stadium on Saturday than Germany has missed in six shootouts at international tournaments spread over 30 years.

Wow.

Technorati Tags: world cup

News and notes:

• The Hotch Potch on the new EC Guidelines on fines for infringment of EC competition rules.
• After the group stage, I was leading my World Cup pool. As I had the Netherlands win it all (and Spain beating Brazil in the quarters), I fear I am out of it. I blame the refs.
• Speaking of the World Cup, the NY Times World Cup blog did some math and calculates that ABC/ESPN is losing about 15% of its auidence to Univision.
• In case you need to kill some free time, and you really, really like 80’s music videos.
• I couldn’t agree more: banning games at recess is distrubing.
• The Tour de France begins on Saturday. For online coverage, I recommend Velonews (love the live coverage of the race).
• Truth on the Market on whether or not XM and Sirius could merge.
• Everything you need to follow the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice Hearings on Section 2 of the Sherman Act: Single-Firm Conduct As Related to Competition.

It has been a while since I have done this.  I blame the World Cup.  For example, when I left the office for lunch yesterday, I expected to return in under an hour as England surely would have put 2 or 3 goals past Trinidad and Tobago by then right?  Wrong.  Thus, I was forced to take an extra long lunch break.

My life is hard.

Anyway ….

• The Washington Post has a very interesting article about Jeffery Skilling’s lawyers not being paid in full.  Basic gist is that O’Melveny & Myers was paid $40 million but billed about $65 million (i.e., 61% of the bill was paid).
• Although also not involving antitrust, the Supreme Court’s eBay decision does involve competition.  Law.com has this very interesting article about the application of the decision in a case in Texas against Microsoft and Autodesk.  Although the jury found for Z4, the plaintiff, and awarded it $133 for the defendants’ willful violation of its patents, the judge denied Z4’s request for an injunction.  The article is very good and worth reading until the end.  (I see that Patently-O has an extensive analysis the decision.)
• As I am on record opposing amendment of the antitrust laws to create special standards for different industries, you can probably guess my opinion on The Oil Industry Merger Antitrust Enforcement Act which would, among other things, amend the Clayton Act so that “the burden of proof shall be on the defendant or defendants to establish by a preponderance of the evidence that the merger, acquisition, or transaction at issue will not substantially lessen competition or tend to create a monopoly” (in the case involving the “business of exploring for, producing, refining, or otherwise processing, storing, marketing, selling, or otherwise making available petroleum, oil, or natural gas, or products derived from petroleum, oil, or natural gas”).
• Audio link of the day (ok, year, as this is the first).  It’s a Todd Terje remix.
• I see, via Patent Baristas, that the ABA IP Section will have a ”Bloggers’ Corner” event at its annual summer conference.  We here at the Antitrust Review are horribly biased about this, but we think the ABA’s Antitrust Section should do the same at its Spring Conference in 2007.  And I am sure we could also find a law firm or two that might be willing to sponsor it (props to Foley Hoag which is sponsoring the IT Bloggers Corner).

Technorati Tags: antitrust, IP, patent law, Enron, oil