A judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia [official website] on Monday prohibited [opinion, PDF] the merger of two major health insurance companies, Aetna and Humana [corporate websites]. This comes after a Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] decision [WP report] that the $37 billion merger would inhibit competition and ultimately hurt customers. The DOJ sued [complaint, PDF] in July in an attempt to bock the merger citing the anti-competitive concerns. Judge John Bates was concerned [NPR report] that the merger would decrease competition substantially in the Medicare Advantage market. There was also concern that such a merger would have led to higher prices and lower quality health insurance. The companies’ merger agreement will expire February 15.

Many corporations with a worldwide reach have come under fire recently for antitrust issues. Last week the European Commission welcomed an agreement [JURIST report] between Apple and Amazon to end their exclusivity obligations for audio books. In January the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that plaintiffs may sue Apple [JURIST report] for violating antitrust regulations by forcing users to purchase apps exclusively through their app store. The EU in November made allegations [JURIST report] that Google had abused its market dominance of its Android mobile phone operating system. In August the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC), South Korea’s antitrust regulator, confirmed that the country is investigating [JURIST report] whether Google violated the country’s antitrust laws.