The head of the US Senate’s antitrust subcommittee has told antitrust officials that Verizon Wireless’s purchase of wireless spectrum from a consortium of cable television companies has the potential to stifle competition.

US computer maker Apple has shot back at a US Department of Justice antitrust division lawsuit, saying the government’s “fundamentally flawed” case against it props up a monopoly while attacking competition in the electronic books market.

The successful prosecution of three financial services executives last week adds another victory to a string of recent courtroom wins for the US Department of Justice’s antitrust division, deepening observers’ belief that changes in the division’s litigation team is paying off for the enforcer.

Renata Hesse, a former partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and a longtime antitrust enforcer, has emerged as a likely candidate to take over the vacant deputy assistant attorney general position at the US Department of Justice.

A senior official at the US Department of Justice’s antitrust division says the country’s antitrust agencies are committed to policing potential anti-competitive behaviour on both sides of the “inextricably linked” payer-provider health-care divide. Ron Knox in Arlington

Enforcers from the US antitrust agencies say their oversight of newly-created accountable care organisations among health-care providers is progressing – but applications for the voluntary review process have been slim. Ron Knox in Arlington

US Senator Herb Kohl, chairman of the Senate’s antitrust subcommittee, has urged the US Department of Justice (DoJ) to reconsider its plan to close four of the antitrust division’s field offices, joining a number of critics within and outside the division.

Joseph Wayland, the man many credit with having revamped the civil litigation programme at the US Department of Justice’s antitrust division, says he expects the division to continue to build on its recent winning streak, even though his new role as head of the division may keep the longtime litigator further from the courtroom.

A US appeal court has upheld the longest jail sentence ever imposed on a cartelist, confirming a four-year term imposed on Steven Keith VandeBrake for his participation in a price-fixing cartel.

A ninth executive has pleaded guilty to price-fixing and bid-rigging in connection with the US Department of Justice’s antitrust division’s (DoJ) expansive investigation of cartels in the auto-parts industry.

Japanese auto parts company Fujikura has become the fifth company to plead guilty to fixing the price of wire harnesses and will pay a US$20 million criminal fine, the US Department of Justice’s antitrust division has announced.

In her final speech as head of the US Department of Justice’s antitrust division, acting Assistant Attorney General Sharis Pozen today said that the division’s flurry of enforcement activities during the Obama Administration have had tangible benefits for both consumers and competition.

A US court has allowed former Silicon Valley employees to proceed in their antitrust lawsuit alleging that Apple, Google, Intel and other high-tech companies conspired not to hire each other’s employees.

The former executive of a tax liens company has become the seventh individual to plead guilty to conspiring to rig bids in municipal tax liens auctions in New Jersey.

Apple has hit back at the US Department of Justice's antitrust division's (DoJ) allegations that it conspired to fix and raise the price of e-books, claiming the accusations are “simply not true” and that its entry into the e-book market in fact helped cultivate competition.