The world’s largest health club, Fitness First, has provided the United Kingdom's Office of Fair Trading with undertakings and improved its membership agreements to make their terms and conditions clearer to consumers. The OFT took action after a number of complaints were received regarding potentially unfair terms within the agreements. Fitness First has 550 clubs worldwide with almost 1.5 million members, 452 000 of them in the UK alone.
The Canadian Competition Bureau and the Canadian Standards Association have jointly released new guidelines that require advertisers to substantiate any claims about their products or services being environmentally friendly. Exaggerated or sometimes false claims about the environmental impact of goods or services—known as 'greenwashing'—are becoming increasingly prevalent and have become a major focus for many consumer protection authorities around the world.
The European Commission has fined four car-glass manufacturers over AUD$2.5 billion for operating a market-sharing cartel. The companies—Pilkington, Saint-Gobain, Asahi and Soliver—are reportedly preparing to appeal the fines. Three of the companies were fined in 2007 for their role in a cartel involving building glass, and the companies are reportedly arguing that this is part of the same business and the EC's maximum penalty rule should therefore have applied both fines together.
LCD makers fined for operating United States cartel
Three manufacturers of liquid crystal displaypanels have been fined AUD$903 million by the United States (US) Department of Justice (DoJ) for operating a price fixing cartel. Asian electronics manufacturers LG Display, Sharp and Chunghwa Picture Tubes have admitted to the conduct, which has affected the price of items such as Apple iPods, Dell laptops and numerous mobile phones.
In a speech presented at a London business conference, the European Commission's Competition Commissioner, Neelie Kroes, stated that the EC would take a tough approach to future mergers involving banks that had received government bailouts. The EC has also issued new guidelines for approving government aid to banks and financial institutions as the global credit crisis batters the market.
The US DoJ has cleared Belgian brewer InBev's AUD$80 billion acquisition of US rival Anheuser Busch, on condition the companies divest InBev's subsidiary, Labatt USA. Meanwhile, China has also placed conditions on the InBev deal, its first-ever decision under its anti-monopoly law. The merger, which also received UK regulatory approval, will create the world’s largest brewer by sales.
The US DoJ has unconditionally approved Delta Airlines to acquire Northwest Airlines in an AUD$3.7 billion deal that will create the world’s largest airline company by traffic. The merger of these airlines is just one of many deals being made in the global airline industry as fuel prices increase and the economic downturn reduces passenger numbers.
