Weekly Anti-trust and Privacy Updates

This week’s anti-trust and privacy updates are as follows:

The Federal Court of Australia, in 2021, had found Google in partial breach of local consumer laws. Google was found to be misleading users about collection of personal data such as location via Android mobile devices. Google conceding to the charges has agreed to pay a $60 million fine to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

In July 2022, The Walt Disney Co. sued Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. in the New York Federal Court, for charging exorbitant interchange fees and exploiting the market dominance. The Suit was instituted under The Sherman Antitrust Act. However, on August 3 2022, Disney moved to dismiss the suit as per the terms of the settlement.

CCI’s ongoing investigation into the cement cartelisation in India, has found 20 cement companies to be actively indulging in anti-competitive practices and cartelization. The list of colluders includes cement manufacturing giants Ambuja Cements, UltraTech Cements, ACC Limited, Dalmia Cement, Shree Cements and NUVOVO Vistas Corp. Ltd. CCI has collected evidences in the form of phone calls, emails as well as WhatsApp to adduce price-fixing. The Cement Companies have been asked to submit their response in the matter by August.

Authored by Ipshita Bhattacharyya (Associate, BananaIP Counsels) and Dinesh G (Intern).

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