A judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia [official website] on Wednesday issued an order to enjoin [press release] the proposed merger of health insurance giant Anthem and Cigna [corporate websites]. The US Department of Justice (DOJ) sued to halt the merger in July on the grounds that the acquisition of Cigna would “substantially lessen” [press release] the competition in the health insurance market. Anthem plans to appeal, while Cigna said [press release] it would evaluate its options. The court’s order is temporarily under seal.

Antitrust issues have become of growing concern in the past months. Last month a federal judge prohibited [JURIST report] the merger of two major health insurance companies, Aetna and Humana. That same month the European Commission welcomed an agreement [JURIST report] between Apple and Amazon to end their exclusivity obligations for audio books. Also 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. In November the EU 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.