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This is the ninth issue of our newsletter on developments in the automotive industry published by Morgan Lewis’s automotive team, adding contributions from around the globe by leveraging the experience of the lawyers in our 29 offices. We counsel our automotive clients on a broad range of industry-specific issues, including matters relating to mergers and acquisitions (M&A), antitrust, litigation, regulatory concerns, intellectual property, and labor and employment.
This issue of Morgan Lewis AUTOMOTIVE, which covers the third quarter of2016, touches on issues relating to the connected car, autonomous vehicles, and other developments in the global automotive markets.
In this issue:
- M&A Developments: Liberty Media’s acquisition of Formula One from a CVC consortium; the acquisitions of minority stakes by Mitsui in Gestamp and by Volkswagen in Navistar; Tesla’s acquisition of SolarCity; Didi Chuxing’s acquisition of Uber’s Chinese operations; Daimler’s acquisition of mobility services provider Athlon Car Lease; the establishment of a joint platform by BMW, Intel, and Mobileye; Dare Group’s acquisition of German tier-1-supplier Carcoustic; and Renault/Nissan’s acquisition of software company Sylpheo.
- Antitrust: European Commission imposes fines on truck manufacturers for fixing prices between 1997 and 2011; Denso’s settlement agreement with auto part manufacturers of antitrust damages claims; insurance company Geico’s files complaint against auto part manufacturers; and the United States’ indictment of auto parts executives for obstruction of justice.
- Regulatory: United States publishes a policy paper on automated vehicles; tougher fuel economy and emission targets in China; establishment of the 5G Automation Association by automotive and telecommunications OEMs; self-driving cars offered by Uber; a software update for Tesla’s autopilot; and recent developments regarding defeat devices around the globe.
- Intellectual Property: New owner of the assets of Saab’s automotive division finally decides to abolish the trademark Saab for cars; 3M Company enforcing its European patent for mixing and spraying of coatings for automotive collision repair; and the UK’s Brexit vote endangers the new unitary patent system.