US antitrust in the new millennium has been characterised both by successes and challenges. The successes include additional exposure of major international cartels, exposure of foreign corporate officials to US prison sentences for cartel activity, further adoption or strengthening of foreign antitrust systems, and deeper co-operation in regard to anti-cartel and merger control enforcement. Merger relief has become quite strict, with firm insistence on fix it first solutions that are quite certain to happen. Challenges include trying to win the Microsoft case on appeal, learning how to deal with private actions involving damages stemming from worldwide cartels and curbing the runaway proliferation of merger control systems that lay too many burdens on largely unobjectionable but highly international transactions. The new administration will undoubtedly continue many of the international initiatives of its predecessor, but is likely to be more sceptical of populist antitrust approaches such as vertical cases or predatory practice monopolisation cases.
World Competition