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BRUSSELS, Sept 19 (Reuters) - EU antitrust chief Neelie Kroes on Tuesday rejected an accusation she was pursuing a vendetta against U.S. software giant Microsoft Corp. and suspected a "coordinated campaign" to discredit her agency. "Far from pursuing a vendetta against Microsoft, the Commission's actions are guided by the desire to create the most innovation-friendly business climate in Europe to the ultimate benefit of European consumers," the European Union Commissioner wrote in a letter published in the Financial Times. Kroes was responding to a letter published by the newspaper from a Microsoft business partner who accused the EU Commission of...

U.S. Patriot Act OKs Business Wiretaps JULY 19, 2006 03:01 by Jung-Hun Kim Jung-Eun Lee (jnghn@donga.com lightee@donga.com) It has been found that when amending the Patriot Act this past March, the U.S. government added a clause permitting wiretaps and bugs for investigation of suspected antitrust law violations, such as price fixing. The revised law may cause significant damage to major Korean companies, the bulk of whose exports go to the U.S., as they could come under investigation on breaking antitrust laws by just making contact with competing firms. The Dong-A Ilbo confirmed the legislation data disclosed by the U.S. administration...

EU antitrust chief Neelie Kroes today brings her proposal to fine Microsoft €2 million a day -- retroactive to December 15 -- before the rest of the European Commission. Her colleagues will no doubt rubber-stamp the plan and then move on to more pressing matters, such as how to promote soccer and cinema in poor countries... The fines are intended to punish Microsoft for not meeting Brussels' March 2004 order to share information with rivals about how the company's Windows software works, so that they can write programs that function properly with the ubiquitous operating system. Microsoft has offered to...

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union regulators fined Microsoft (MSFT) 280.5 million euros ($357.3 million) on Wednesday for defying a 2004 antitrust ruling, and warned the company to comply or face bigger fines from next month. The tough new penalty is the first of its kind and comes on top of a record 497 million-euro fine the Commission imposed in its landmark antitrust decision against Microsoft in March 2004. "Microsoft has still not put an end to its illegal conduct. I have no alternative but to levy penalty payments for this continued non-compliance," Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said. "No company is...

US firms accuse Qualcomm of unfair practices in South Korea SEOUL, July 3, 2006 (AFP) - Two US technology firms have filed a complaint with South Korea's antitrust watchdog accusing US mobile phone chip developer Qualcomm of abusing its market dominance, officials have said. The Fair Trade Commission (FTC), a state organization watching for fair trade, said the complaint was lodged by Texas Instruments and Broadcom. "Qualcomm was accused of selling its handset chips bundled with other chip products by using its market dominance," an FTC official said. Qualcomm has monopoly market status in South Korea as the sole supplier...

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Adobe is poised to sue Microsoft over Microsoft's planned PDF support in Office 2007. Microsoft allegedly is removing the export-to-PDF capability at Adobe's request. It's not surprising that Adobe Systems is worried about Microsoft's growing encroachments into its core markets. But now Adobe is said to be ready to take its dissatisfaction to the courts. The Wall Street Journal reported on June 2 that Adobe is poised to launch an antitrust suit in Europe against Microsoft, following the break-down of four-month-long talks over Microsoft's Office 2007 PDF plans. Microsoft announced in October 2005...

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- The Department of Justice said Friday Microsoft Corp. has agreed to extend oversight of the software company's final antitrust judgment by at least two years. The DOJ requested the extension in a status report filed today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The DOJ said an extension is necessary due to Microsoft's difficulty in improving the technical documentation it provides to licensees. The original final judgment is set to expire in fall of 2007; if the extension is approved by the court, it would expire in fall of 2009. Microsoft has...

Big Oil in congressional cross hairs Politics play large role in fuel-price protests By Jack Torry and Jonathan Riskind The Columbus Dispatch Friday, April 28, 2006 1:03 AM WASHINGTON — In a bitter election year, Congress has finally reached consensus about something this week: Everybody is mad at the oil companies. The soaring price of gasoline has sent tremors through Capitol Hill, with Republicans and Democrats scurrying for the nearest TV camera to assail the petroleum giants. Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, wants the Justice Department to use antitrust laws to go after foreign oil exporters, while Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J.,...

Rambus (RMBS:Nasdaq - commentary - research - Cramer's Take) won a major court victory Monday when a jury found that South Korea's Hynix Semiconductor infringed on the company's patents. A federal court jury in San Jose, Calif., found that Hynix, the world's No. 2 computer memory maker, infringed on all 10 patents at issue, and awarded Rambus $307 million, according to Pacific American Securities analyst Michael Cohen, who has been attending the trial for the past month.

US authorities cleared the Whirlpool deal to acquire rival appliance maker Maytag, a tie-up agreed after a bidding war with a Chinese firm. The US Justice Department's antitrust division said its investigation "determined that the proposed transaction is not likely to reduce competition substantially."

Apple Computer Inc. blasted an effort by French lawmakers that could force Apple to make its iPod and iTunes Music Store work with digital music products from other companies... Lawmakers in the National Assembly, France's lower house, on Tuesday approved a bill by a vote of 296-193 that aims to require Apple to open the digital-music format used by the iPod and iTunes to other companies, along with similar technologies from others companies like Microsoft Corp. and Sony Corp. The bill, if it passes into law after going to the French Senate for a vote, could force Apple, of Cupertino,...

When President Bush signs the Patriot Act amendments into law later this week, the civil liberties of people targeted in terrorism investigations will be strengthened. That's not the case, however, for corporate executives and directors under investigation for antitrust crimes. For them, the amendments will enable the government to wiretap phone conversations and bug boardrooms and offices if there's probable cause that antitrust violations are being committed. Up until now, the Department of Justice has used wiretaps and bugs mainly to gather evidence against suspected mobsters, drug runners, terrorists, and other "blue collar" criminals, as prosecutors like to refer to...

The European Union’s antitrust chief Neelie Kroes said today she had not yet received all information on Microsoft’s offer to share software codes and comply with a 2004 EU antitrust ruling. She also told European politicians that the software giant could not charge fees for the server protocol and communication codes if it could not prove that the code was innovative. “If no such innovation … no remuneration can be charged by Microsoft,” she said. Microsoft Corp. has until February 15 to reply to the formal charge sheet the Commission sent in December over providing complete and accurate information...

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - An antitrust lawsuit filed Monday against Exxon Mobil Corp. and BP PLC claims the two oil giants are restricting the nation's supply of natural gas and keeping prices at record highs. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Fairbanks, says the two companies acted together to eliminate competition for the exploration, development and marketing of natural gas from Alaska's North Slope to U.S. markets. "The only reason for them to collusively not to sell is to try to continue the scarcity that has driven natural gas prices to historic highs," said David Boies, the...

PHILADELPHIA -- Sen. Arlen Specter is accusing the National Football League and the Philadelphia Eagles of treating Terrell Owens unfairly. The Pennsylvania Republican says he might refer the matter to the antitrust subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee, of which he is the chairman. Specter said at a news conference Monday in Harrisburg it was "vindictive and inappropriate" for the league and the Eagles to forbid the all-pro wide receiver from playing and to prevent other teams from talking to him. He said, "It's a restraint of trade for them to do that" and "it might be a violation of...

SAN DIEGO - At a critical point in Sempra Energy's $23 billion antitrust trial, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer's office threatened to file a separate lawsuit intended to leverage a settlement that would mean tens of millions of dollars in fees for Lockyer's longtime political ally and friend Tom Girardi and others on the legal team, lawyers and sources close to the case said. Girardi, his Los Angeles law firm Girardi & Keese and its employees contributed more than $260,000 to Lockyer's political campaign between 2001 and 2004 and gave him gifts, including plane trips, sports tickets and $325 in...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Samsung, the world's largest maker of memory chips for computers and other electronic gadgets, will plead guilty to price fixing and pay a $300 million fine, federal officials announced Thursday. The penalty is the second-largest criminal antitrust fine in history and caps a three-year investigation of the largest makers of "dynamic random access memory" chips, a $7.7 billion market in the United States. The guilty plea by South Korea-based Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and its U.S. subsidiary, Samsung Semiconductor Inc., was to be entered Thursday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. The Justice Department already has...

ntel fired back at rival Advanced Micro Devices on Thursday in a legal response to AMD's lawsuit, denying it has violated antitrust laws. The 63-page response said AMD has fallen behind Intel because of its own business mistakes, not because Intel engaged in any antitrust activity. In the long run, Intel said, AMD's lawsuit will raise prices for consumers. Intel, based in Santa Clara, is the world's largest maker of semiconductor chips. AMD, a smaller rival based in Sunnyvale, filed suit in federal court in June contending Intel violated antitrust laws by using a combination of incentives and threats to...

On Saturday, August 20 at 9:45 am The Abolition of Antitrust Gary Hull Description: Gary Hull argues that antitrust laws are harmful in the book he edited entitled "The Abolition of Antitrust." Mr. Hull and other contributing writers assert that these laws are based on bad economics and the misinterpretation of American business history. Gary Hull is joined by Yaron Brook, president of the Ayn Rand Institute in Irvine, California, to examine several antitrust cases, including General Electric, Visa/Mastercard, and Kellogg/General Mills. Author Bio: Gary Hull is director of the Program on Values and Ethics in the Marketplace at Duke...

AMD FILED AN ANTITRUST SUIT against Intel, accusing its rival of using illegal inducements and coercion to dissuade firms from buying AMD's computer chips. 3:00 a.m.