I don’t think it’s going to be the smoking gun everybody seems to think it is. Even if the FTC asked the CMA to rule in a certain way they wouldn’t have done it in any official capacity.
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Not allowed is different to collusion…which looks very much the story here. Oh we were in regular contact with the FTC wink wink, but Brexit means we didn’t really bother talking to the EU…
Funny that,…
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Yeah… something doesn’t smell right… the next meeting is gonna be super interesting.
What makes it look like collusion?
The volume of content with an ideologically fuelled regulator vs that with the EU who passed it. Whilst I’m sure there is a need for regulators to share stuff the CMA repeatedly point out that they are independent and don’t care about other regulators as they make their own decisions using their own frameworks applied within their own market.
Yet the volume of communication suggests something else.
A handful of exchanges and a few emails sure…but this is a lot….what would they need from the FTC in order to run their assessment?
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That’s a lot of communication for an independent organization that had already received about 2million worth of data from Microsoft. I’d expect that kind of communication if you were training someone or writing a book LOL.
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In addition to Zappy’s response, the CMA lawyer telling the CAT judge the only reason FTC didn’t sue to kill the merger was due to the expectation that they (the CMA) would block… seems like a pretty big admission of collusion in addition to what few other details we already know.
There’s nothing at all wrong with discussions amongst other regulators, but there’s a valid line of reasoning behind why senators directly asked Khan if she was cooperating with a foreign entity to hinder an American company.
I’m not necessarily convinced that anything illegal took place, but there’s definitely a lot of smoke to suggest that it wasn’t strictly in-line with what international communications are expected around a case like this.
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This is my thinking as well. They can easily clear everything up by releasing every piece of communication between them.
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Yeah this is gonna get political very fast. While its not illegal to communicate with other regulators around the world, actively colluding with other regulators to neuter your own companies goes against the interest of the United States. This just give credence to the investigations demanded by the Chamber of Commerce. If the FTC really believe there is anti trust issues on this deal, why not file an injuction, and prove it to the courts?
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I think the issue is also if they asked you to rule a certain way. You don’t disclose that they asked you to do this and then you end up ruling that way be it because they asked or not it creates the optics that the segment of the UK government is taking orders from the FTC .
Then conversely it would be bad for Lina Khan who is already accused of abuse of power if it did come out that she directed or asked another country to block a merger to circumvent the policies and laws of her own country.
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Sure, but they’re not going to be stupid enough to have any documentation of anything that will remotely look like that.
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Really hope CAT repeals the CMA decision, and for the UK government to actually restructure the CMA for a better system that won’t allow for the CMA to abuse their position like this.
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I will continue to smash that saying “well we allowed this other merger from Microsoft and there’s like barely any mergers we block so it’s not like we’re being unfair!” as a defence is so damn weak and hilarious. The fact the CMA are being so damn defensive is eye opening, I need to know if they do this often or is this unusal behaviour to this deal because if the later is the case that will raise some eyebrows.
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Good overview of the letter today
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I dont understand the legal framework why they are allowed to talk to the FTC but not the EU institutions. Just Brexit ideologies?
Personally i dont think its collusion if regulators talk to each other, they face global companies after all. So fair game. But this here smells bad.
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I think, or at least personally know, that when I say collusion I don’t mean anything illegal has happened. Simply that to me it’s clear that the FTC and CMA have worked together to block this. They are of course allowed to do that but it makes a mockery of the CMA’s previous insistence that they weren’t concerned with what other regulators do and the lack of coordination with the EU suggests maybe that the only interest was working collectively to block it.
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Can you not? Canada, Aus and NZ are all in the commonwealth so it’s not shocking they all are in limbo with what the UK are doing.
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As a expat Kiwi, we are also a very tiny nation. Its not going to have a huge impact one way or the other.
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