Verizon Communications Inc. v. Law Offices of Curtis V. Trinko, LLP:

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an important opinion concerning Section 2 of the Sherman Act, which prohibits monopolization and attempted monopolization. The opinion, written by Justice Scalia, limits the circumstances under which antitrust law will compel companies to assist their rivals

United States v. AMR Corp.: Non-Traditional Cost Measures and Expanding Predatory Pricing Exposure

Historically, industries with low average variable costs (AVC) have been as a practical matter largely immune from predatory pricing claims. The reason is simple. Predatory pricing claims require the plaintiff to establish, among other things, that the defendant priced below an appropriate measure of cost. Because marginal costs are notoriously difficult to measure, courts have commonly compared the defendant’s prices to AVC (total costs that vary with output/units of output). Consequently, in industries where average variable costs are very low, plaintiffs are unlikely to be able to prove that defendants have priced below AVC, even when defendants have drastically slashed prices. Airlines are a classic example of such an industry

Antitrust and Competition Law Update: U.S. v. Visa: Government Wins Major Rule of Reason Case

On September 17, 2003, the Second Circuit issued an important decision in U.S. v. Visa U.S.A., Inc., 2003 WL 22138519 (2d Cir. Sept. 17, 2003). The court affirmed a district court ruling invalidating Visa and Mastercard rules that prohibit member banks from issuing American Express or Discover.1 The district court had found that these ìexclusionary rulesî substantially harmed competition and failed scrutiny under a rule of reason analysis. Visa is noteworthy both because it is a (relatively rare) government win in a major rule of reason case ó with the Second Circuit affirming the trial courtís rigorous inquiry into the rulesí anticompetitive effects and proffered procompetive justification ó and because it may bring pressure for substantial structural changes in the card industry

Antitrust and Competition Law Update: Busy Times for U.S. Antitrust Enforcement

The last several weeks have seen a flurry of important developments in antitrust enforcement, with major decisions in one merger and one joint venture case, an important Federal Trade Commission policy statement about disgorgement and restitution remedies, and an announced FTC challenge to a consummated merger. Each of these developments is significant standing alone; collectively, they reflect extremely active Justice Department and FTC antitrust enforcement programs, with the agencies at times adopting more aggressive positions than some might have expected from a Republican administration

Antitrust and Competition Law Update: Agencies Send a Strong Message on HSR Filing

The Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division last week each announced enforcement actions against and settlements with parties that alleged failed to make required notifications of transactions under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, as amended. Each case resulted in a significant fine (one of $800,000 and one of$1 million) and signaled the agencies’ intent to pursue vigorously parties that fail -- intentionally or negligently -- to meet their obligations under the HSR Act. Moreover, both cases address the scope of the HSR Act’s “investment only” exemption and show that the agencies construe it strictly to apply only when the acquiror’s interest and intent concerning the acquired firm is truly passive. Finally, these cases serve as a reminder that the Act’s filing requirements apply not only to purchases of an entire company or all of its assets, but also to any purchase of voting securities so long as certain thresholds are met -- whether or not the purchaser obtains any significant percentage ownershi

A Violação da Condição em Kadiwéu Condition C Violation in Kadiwéu

Apesar de o kadiwéu apresentar as mesmas características tipológicas das línguas analisadas por Baker (1995), este trabalho mostra que o parâmetro da polissíntese proposto por Baker, de acordo com o qual as línguas polissintéticas seriam línguas de argumentos pronominais, não se sustenta para esta língua. Este artigo oferece, então, uma análise alternativa à teoria dos argumentos pronominais para o kadiwéu sustentando que sintagmas nominais são argumentos verbais nesta língua polissintética, como em qualquer outra língua melhor conhecida. Nesta perspectiva, uma das característica principais das línguas polissintéticas, a suposta violação da Condição C (e.g. <>i quer que João i ame Maria, <>i quebrou a faca do João i), deriva de movimento sintático decorrente da natureza do sistema-v do kadiwéu. Este texto, assim, questiona a existência de um parâmetro da polissíntese e desenvolve um insight de Fukui & Speas (1996) que prevê que a sintaxe de uma dada língua decorre das categorias funcionais presentes no léxico desta língua.<br>Although kadiwéu presents the same typological facts as the languages analyzed by Baker (1995), this work shows that Baker's polysynthesis parameter , according to which polysynthetic languages are pronominal argument languages, cannot be applied to this language. This paper offers, then, an alternative analysis to the pronominal argument theory for kadiwéu by arguing that nominal phrases are the verbal arguments in this polysynthetic language, like in any other better known language. On this view, one of the main properties of the polysynthetic languages, the so-called Condition C violation (e.g. <>i wants John i to love Mary, <> i broke John i's knife), follows from syntactic movement due to the nature of the Kadiwéu v-system. That is, this paper questions the existence of a polysynthesis parameter and develops Fukui & Speas (1996) insight that the syntax of a given language follows from the functional categories present in this language's lexicon

Effects of once-weekly exenatide on cardiovascular outcomes in type 2 diabetes

BACKGROUND: The cardiovascular effects of adding once-weekly treatment with exenatide to usual care in patients with type 2 diabetes are unknown. METHODS: We randomly assigned patients with type 2 diabetes, with or without previous cardiovascular disease, to receive subcutaneous injections of extended-release exenatide at a dose of 2 mg or matching placebo once weekly. The primary composite outcome was the first occurrence of death from cardiovascular causes, nonfatal myocardial infarction, or nonfatal stroke. The coprimary hypotheses were that exenatide, administered once weekly, would be noninferior to placebo with respect to safety and superior to placebo with respect to efficacy. RESULTS: In all, 14,752 patients (of whom 10,782 [73.1%] had previous cardiovascular disease) were followed for a median of 3.2 years (interquartile range, 2.2 to 4.4). A primary composite outcome event occurred in 839 of 7356 patients (11.4%; 3.7 events per 100 person-years) in the exenatide group and in 905 of 7396 patients (12.2%; 4.0 events per 100 person-years) in the placebo group (hazard ratio, 0.91; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.83 to 1.00), with the intention-to-treat analysis indicating that exenatide, administered once weekly, was noninferior to placebo with respect to safety (P<0.001 for noninferiority) but was not superior to placebo with respect to efficacy (P=0.06 for superiority). The rates of death from cardiovascular causes, fatal or nonfatal myocardial infarction, fatal or nonfatal stroke, hospitalization for heart failure, and hospitalization for acute coronary syndrome, and the incidence of acute pancreatitis, pancreatic cancer, medullary thyroid carcinoma, and serious adverse events did not differ significantly between the two groups. CONCLUSIONS: Among patients with type 2 diabetes with or without previous cardiovascular disease, the incidence of major adverse cardiovascular events did not differ significantly between patients who received exenatide and those who received placebo