Hard to disagree with this conclusion. No expert economic evidence presented to court on the harm caused by bid-rigging. Compecon prepared report for the CCPC on the case. http://www.irishtimes.com/business/companies/ireland-is-no-country-for-tackling-white-collar-crime-1.3104596#.WTFRhn4yoLQ.mailto

EU Commission slaps Facebook with €110m fine for providing misleading information in relation to its 2014 takeover of Whatsapp. At the time of the takeover Facebook told the Commission that it would be unable to establish reliable automated matching between Facebook users' accounts and WhatsApp users' accounts. The Commission decision states that the technical possibility of automatically matching Facebook and WhatsApp users' identities already existed in 2014, and that Facebook staff were aware of such a possibility. According to the Commission the possibility of matching did not affect its decision allowing the transaction to proceed.

CCPC clears VHI acquisition of Swiftcare clinics. The CCPC approved VHI's acquisition of sole control of the VHI Swiftcare clinics located in Dublin and Cork. The VHI had previously held a 50% share in the business. Compecon advised VHI in relation to the transaction.

Pat Massey presented paper analysing attendances in Rugby Union's Pro-12 league at Annual Gijon Sports Economics Conference. Paper co-authored with Vincent Hogan of UCD shows that Irish teams recorded faster growth in attendances than teams from Scotland and Wales. The faster attendance growth recorded by the Irish teams appears to be largely due to the fact that they have been more successful and do not face direct competition from top tier soccer clubs.

New paper published in European Sports Management Quarterly analysing Heineken Cup match attendances from 1995/96 to 2013/14. The paper was co-authored by Compecon's Patrick Massey with Vincent Hogan (UCD) and Shane Massey (TCD) and is available on-line.

Merger of cooked meats producers gets competition clearance. The CCPC announced that it had cleared the acquisition of Faughan Foods Limited by Silvereed. Both companies produce cooked meats. Compecon advised Silvereed in relation to the transaction.

The EU Commission has found that Ireland provided illegal State Aid to Apple in the form of tax benefits worth up to €13 billion over several years..

Compecon's Patrick Massey presented a paper analysing the performance of Republic of Ireland football managers since 1970 to the second Annual UCC Sports Economics Workshop. The paper was co-authored with David Butler and Ollie O'Brien. For more see http://www.sportseconomics.org/workshop.html