Ms. Kroes said she suspected Servier and the other companies had reached agreements aimed at hindering the availability of a generic version of its cardiovascular medicine perindopril.
And that, "the closure did not constitute an unfair labor practice aimed at hindering the union or the employees from exercising rights under the labor code".
Meeting a public council in Sochi, Mr Putin likened Western criticism of Russia to the "deterrence theory aimed at hindering the development of the Soviet Union.
But even if a pardon were ultimately aimed at hindering an investigation, it might still pass legal muster, said Jack Goldsmith, a former assistant attorney general in the George W. Bush administration and a professor at Harvard Law School.
In particular, Microsoft claimed that anti-competitive practices by Google on the Web and in smartphone software were aimed at hindering rivals from examining and indexing information that Google controls, like its popular YouTube video clip service.
Just as seriously, any local NGOs that receive foreign funding may have to seek time-consuming approval for each overseas donation – a clause thought to be aimed at hindering Egyptian human rights groups, almost all of whom rely exclusively on foreign aid.
LUXEMBOURG, Sept. 30 - Microsoft, seeking to stave off legal sanctions aimed at hindering its ability to dominate markets for desktop media players and server software, warned a European appeals court on Thursday that software developers and consumers would face dire consequences should it be penalized.
To reduce the seeming randomness with which some defendants appear to end up on death row, we proposed that the twenty eligibility criteria for capital punishment in Illinois be trimmed to five: multiple murders, murder of a police officer or firefighter, murder in a prison, murder aimed at hindering the justice system, and murder involving torture.
For example, since taking office the president has lifted the odious gag rule that former President George W. Bush imposed on international family-planning groups and moved to rescind an 11th-hour Bush regulation aimed at hindering women's access to abortion, contraceptives and the information necessary to make decisions about their own health.
State action that is a hindrance to freedom can, when properly directed, support and maintain freedom if the state action is aimed at hindering actions that themselves would hinder the freedom of others.
