Following an in-depth investigation the UK Competition Commission has conditionally approved the acquisition of National Grid Wireless (NGW) by Macquarie, allowing the merger of NGW with Macquarie’s broadcast transmission arm Arqiva. The merger will create a monopoly provider of terrestrial transmission services to radio and television broadcasters in the UK.

Despite finding that the merger could be expected to give rise to a substantial lessening of competition, the Commission took account of significant efficiency savings expected to result from the merger, and also the beneficial effect on the terrestrial television digital switch over programme, in its analysis of remedies. The agreed behavioural undertakings will serve to protect new and existing customers from any potential adverse effects of the merger, and guarantee broadcasters a share of the expected synergies. The proposed undertakings are supported by customers and by Ofcom, who, as sectoral regulator, will play a significant role in their implementation.

RBB advised the merging parties throughout the investigation alongside Clifford Chance.

Adrian Majumdar will speak in Bergen at the Shipping Executive Conference on 10 April 2008 to provide an economist’s perspective on the Draft Guidelines on the Application of Article 81 of the EC Treaty to Maritime Transport Services, with a focus on tramp shipping pools and self-assessment in the “new regime”.

Derek Ridyard will be speaking at IBC’s Advanced EC Competition Law” conference in London on 23 April, commenting on the lessons that the Microsoft case holds for Article 82 enforcement in the areas of leveraging, tying and bundling”.

For more details see http://www.ibclegal.com

Following a second phase investigation, the European Commission has cleared Google’s proposed acquisition of the online advertising technology company DoubleClick. The Commission examined a wide range of possible horizontal and non-horizontal theories of harm and eventually concluded that the transaction would be unlikely to have harmful effects on consumers. RBB advised Google and DoubleClick throughout the investigation alongside lawyers Cleary Gottlieb, Hengler Mueller, Jones Day and Simpson Thatcher & Bartlett.

Derek Ridyard will be speaking at the Butterworths/LexisNexis “New Competition Law Landscape” Conference in London on 19 March, assessing recent trends in economic analysis of competition law cases and the way that economic evidence is used before the courts and the administrative agencies.

For more details see

http://www1.lexisnexis.co.uk/conferencesandtraining/butterworths/btws_compet/competition_190308.htm.

Derek Ridyard will be speaking at the forthcoming IBC Conference on Pricing and the Dominant Company. He will focus on the meaning of an effects-based approach to assessing pricing abuses, and consider whether enforcement practice is living up to the stated intentions of DG COMP’s Article 82 Discussion Paper. Philip Lowe and Luc Peeperkorn are among the other speakers at the event, which will take place in Brussels on 31 January.

For more details see:

http://www.ibclegal.com/informalaw/marlin/system/render.jsp?siteid=30000000742&MarlinViewType=MARKT_EFFORT&marketingid=20001625103