Bogeymen, lunatics and fanatics: collective actions and the private enforcement of European competition law

The European desire to ensure that bearers of EU rights are adequately compensated for any infringement of these rights, particularly in cases where the harm is widely diffused, and perhaps not even noticed by those affected by it, collides with another desire: to avoid the perceived excesses of an American-style system of class actions. The excesses of these American class actions are in European discourse presented as a sort of bogeyman, which is a source of irrational fear, often presented by parental or other authority figures. But when looked at critically, the bogeyman disappears. In this paper, I examine the European (and UK) proposals for collective action. I compare them to the American regime. The flaws and purported excesses of the American regime, I argue, are exaggerated. A close, objective examination of the American regime shows this. I conclude that it is not the mythical bogeyman of a US class action that is the barrier to effective collective redress; rather, the barriers to effective, wide-ranging group actions lie within European legal culture and traditions, particularly those mandating individual control over litigation.

Inter-Agency Evidence Sharing in Competition Law Enforcement

While transnational antitrust enforcement is becoming only more common, the access to foreign-based evidence remains a considerable practical challenge. This article appraises considerations and concerns surrounding confidentiality, and looks into ways of their possible accommodation. It further identifies and critically evaluates the existing mechanisms allowing for inter-agency confidential information/ evidence sharing in competition law enforcement. The article outlines the shortcomings of the current framework and points to novel unilateral approaches. In the latter regard the focus is devoted to Australia, where the competition agency is empowered to share confidential information with foreign counterparts, also without any underlying bilateral agreement and on a non-reciprocal basis. This solution shows that a pragmatic and workable approach to inter-agency evidence sharing can be achieved.

Microbial weeds in hypersaline habitats: the enigma of the weed-like Haloferax mediterranei

Heterotrophic prokaryotic communities that inhabit saltern crystallizer ponds are typically dominated by two species, the archaeon Haloquadratum walsbyi and the bacterium Salinibacter ruber, regardless of location. These organisms behave as ‘microbial weeds’ as defined by Cray et al. (Microb Biotechnol 6: 453–492, 2013) that possess the biological traits required to dominate the microbiology of these open habitats. Here, we discuss the enigma of the less abundant Haloferax mediterranei, an archaeon that grows faster than any other, comparable extreme halophile. It has a wide window for salt tolerance, can grow on simple as well as on complex substrates and degrade polymeric substances, has different modes of anaerobic growth, can accumulate storage polymers, produces gas vesicles, and excretes halocins capable of killing other Archaea. Therefore, Hfx. mediterranei is apparently more qualified as a ‘microbial weed’ than Haloquadratum and Salinibacter. However, the former differs because it produces carotenoid pigments only in the lower salinity range and lacks energy-generating retinal-based, light-driven ion pumps such as bacteriorhodopsin and halorhodopsin. We discuss these observations in relation to microbial weed biology in, and the open-habitat ecology of, hypersaline systems.

Microbial community of the deep-sea brine Lake Kryos seawater-brine interface is active below the chaotropicity limit of life as revealed by recovery of mRNA

Within the complex of deep, hypersaline anoxic lakes (DHALs) of the Mediterranean Ridge, we identified a new, unexplored DHAL and named it ‘Lake Kryos’ after a nearby depression. This lake is filled with magnesium chloride (MgCl2)-rich, athalassohaline brine (salinity > 470 practical salinity units), presumably formed by the dissolution of Messinian bischofite. Compared with the DHAL Discovery, it contains elevated concentrations of kosmotropic sodium and sulfate ions, which are capable of reducing the net chaotropicily of MgCl2-rich solutions. The brine of Lake Kryos may therefore be biologically permissive at MgCl2 concentrations previously considered incompatible with life. We characterized the microbiology of the seawater–Kryos brine interface and managed to recover mRNA from the 2.27–3.03 MMgCl2 layer (equivalent to 0.747–0.631 water activity), thereby expanding the established chaotropicity window-for-life. The primary bacterial taxa present there were Kebrit Deep Bacteria 1 candidate division and DHAL-specific group of organisms, distantly related toDesulfohalobium. Two euryarchaeal candidate divisions, Mediterranean Sea Brine Lakes group 1 and halophilic cluster 1, accounted for > 85% of the rRNA-containing archaeal clones derived from the 2.27–3.03 M MgCl2 layer, but were minority community-members in the overlying interface-layers. These findings shed light on the plausibility of life in highly chaotropic environments, geochemical windows for microbial extremophiles, and have implications for habitability elsewhere in the Solar System.

Linking watershed terrain and hydrology to soil chemical properties, microbial communities and impacts on soil organic C in a humid mid-latitude forested watershed

Understanding the response of humid mid-latitude forests to changes in precipitation, temperature, nutrient cycling, and disturbance is critical to improving our predictive understanding of changes in the surface-subsurface energy balance due to climate change. Mechanistic understanding of the effects of long-term and transient moisture conditions are needed to quantify
linkages between changing redox conditions, microbial activity, and soil mineral and nutrient interactions on C cycling and greenhouse gas releases. To illuminate relationships between the soil chemistry, microbial communities and organic C we established transects across hydraulic and topographic gradients in a small watershed with transient moisture conditions. Valley bottoms tend to be more frequently saturated than ridge tops and side slopes which generally are only saturated when shallow storm flow zones are active. Fifty shallow (~36”) soil cores were collected during timeframes representative of low CO2, soil winter conditions and high CO2, soil summer conditions. Cores were subdivided into 240 samples based on pedology and analyses of the geochemical (moisture content, metals, pH, Fe species, N, C, CEC, AEC) and microbial (16S rRNA gene
amplification with Illumina MiSeq sequencing) characteristics were conducted and correlated to watershed terrain and hydrology. To associate microbial metabolic activity with greenhouse gas emissions we installed 17 soil gas probes, collected gas samples for 16 months and analyzed them for CO2 and other fixed and greenhouse gasses. Parallel to the experimental efforts our data is being used to support hydrobiogeochemical process modeling by coupling the Community Land Model (CLM) with a subsurface process model (PFLOTRAN) to simulate processes and interactions from the molecular to watershed scales. Including above ground processes (biogeophysics, hydrology, and vegetation dynamics), CLM provides mechanistic water, energy, and organic matter inputs to the surface/subsurface models, in which coupled biogeochemical reaction
networks are used to improve the representation of below-ground processes. Preliminary results suggest that inclusion of above ground processes from CLM greatly improves the prediction of moisture response and water cycle at the watershed scale.

On convergence with hiccups: recent amendments to Poland's competition law

Discusses the amendments to the Polish Competition Act 2007 adopted in June 2014 which aim to enhance the effectiveness of antitrust enforcement, including the introduction of: (1) civil fines for individuals; (2) a "leniency plus" programme based on the US model; (3) a settlement procedure; and (4) extended inspection powers for the Competition Authority. Assesses the likely effectiveness of the reforms.

Interspecific competition in honeybee intracellular gut parasites is asymmetric and favours the spread of an emerging infectious disease

There is increasing appreciation that hosts in natural populations are subject to infection by multiple parasite species. Yet the epidemiological and ecological processes determining the outcome of mixed infections are poorly understood. Here, we use two intracellular gut parasites (Microsporidia), one exotic and one co-evolved in the western honeybee (Apis mellifera), in an experiment in which either one or both parasites were administered either simultaneously or sequentially. We provide clear evidence of within-host competition; order of infection was an important determinant of the competitive outcome between parasites, with the first parasite significantly inhibiting the growth of the second, regardless of species. However, the strength of this ‘priority effect’ was highly asymmetric, with the exotic Nosema ceranae exhibiting stronger inhibition of Nosema apis than vice versa. Our results reveal an unusual asymmetry in parasite competition that is dependent on order of infection. When incorporated into a mathematical model of disease prevalence, we find asymmetric competition to be an important predictor of the patterns of parasite prevalence found in nature. Our findings demonstrate the wider significance of complex multi-host–multi-parasite interactions as drivers of host–pathogen community structure