Tel Aviv-Berkeley LL.M. Program 2015

Technology Antitrust

Hanno Kaiser. University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, Room 170; Time: 9-11:45 am

Key Concepts

See the Key Concepts Page

Class 1: Technology Antitrust: A Framework and a Baseline Case

August 3, 2015 (Monday)

Topics for discussion

• Antitrust policy

• Distributed antitrust enforcement in the U.S.

  • Private plaintiffs
  • DOJ & FTC
  • State Attorneys General

• Analytical framework

  • Coordinated/unilateral
  • Horizontal/vertical
  • Per se/rule of reason

• Legal framework

  • §1 of the Sherman Act
  • §2 of the Sherman Act
  • §7 of the Clayton Act
  • §5 of the FTC Act
  • Hart-Scott-Rodino (“HSR”) Act
• Criminal price fixing: A baseline case

Reading Materials

• U.S. Antitrust laws
• Hanno Kaiser, U.S. Antitrust Cheat Sheet (2011)
• U.S. v. Andreas, 216 F.3d 645 (7th Cir. 2000). Excerpt

Optional

• Hanno Kaiser, Excerpt from Antitrust Law And Policy: An Introduction (2012)
• Scott Hammond, “Caught in the Act: Inside an International Cartel" (2005)
• Video footage from the Lysine cartel (YouTube)

Class 2: Disruptive Business Models or Illegal Cartels?

August 4, 2015 (Tuesday)

Topics for discussion

• Disruption via de novo entry as per se illegal conduct?
• Platform competition and price effects
• Collective licensing and the aggregation of IP rights
• Anatomy of a complex civil antitrust litigation, involving multiple defendants, DOJ, State Attorneys General as parens patriae, and private class action plaintiffs, etc.
• Hiring cartels?

Reading Materials

• United States v. Apple Inc., et al., U.S. v. Apple, Inc., --- F.3d ---- (2d. Cir. 2015). Excerpts
• Broad. Music, Inc. v. Columbia Broad. Sys., Inc., 441 U.S. 1 (1979). Excerpts
• United States v. Adobe Systems, Inc., Apple Inc., Google Inc., Intel Corporation, Intuit, Inc., and Pixar (2010) Complaint.

Class 3: Platform Wars and the Modern Law of Monopolization

August 5, 2015 (Wednesday)

Topics for discussion

• Network effects and market power

  • Operating systems and applications
  • Mobile operating systems and services
  • Internet search
  • Social networks
  • Messaging applications
  • Single brand "aftermarkets"

• Exclusionary strategies

  • Locking up OEMs and distribution channels
  • Tying and bundling
  • Attacking interoperability layers (e.g., Java)
  • “Predatory innovation” and breaking interoperability
  • “Embrace, extend, extinguish"
  • Product disparagement and FUD
  • Planned obsolescence and the "hard switch"

Reading Materials

• United States v. Microsoft, 253 F.3d 34 (D.C. Cir. 2001). Excerpts
• FTC v. Intel, Complaint (2009). Focus on paras 56-71 (“Intel Redesigned its Software to Slow Software Performance on Non-Intel CPUs” and the effect on benchmarks)
• New York v. Actavis, ______, (2d. Cir. 2015) Excerpts
• Hanno Kaiser, Microsoft Monopolization Offenses Chart (2008)

Optional

• Martyn Burke, Pirates of Silicon Valley (2005).
• Hanno Kaiser, Are Closed Systems an Antitrust Problem?, Competition Policy International 91, Vol.7, No.1 (2011)
• Eastman Kodak Co. v. Image Technical Services, Inc., 504 U.S. 451 (1992) (Here are some case notes). Excerpts

Class 4: Technology M&A in the Real World

August 6, 2015 (Thursday)

Topics for discussion

• Is your deal notifiable (HSR)?

  • HSR is an anomaly
  • Basic HSR considerations
  • Common HSR issues in U.S./Israel deals

• How much real-world antitrust risk is there?

  • Three questions that capture 90% of all M&A antitrust issues
  • The three categories of evidence that the agencies are looking for

• How to manage the antitrust risk?

  • Risk shifting provisions in the M&A agreement
  • The critical impact of timing
  • Gun jumping, integration planning

Reading Materials

FTC/DOJ, Horizontal Merger Guidelines (2010). Excerpts

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