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Competition
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June 24, 2024
UFC Fighters Swing Again To Get OK On $335M Wage Deal
UFC fighters seeking preliminary approval for their $335 million deal to end class claims that the mixed martial arts organization suppressed their wages submitted a revised distribution plan Monday, after a Nevada federal judge said he wanted to see "life changing" money for fighters who waited through the decadelong litigation.
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June 24, 2024
Justices Will Weigh Liability Of Corporate Affiliates In TM Row
The U.S. Supreme Court will review whether a real estate development company's corporate affiliates should be responsible for a $46.6 million trademark infringement judgment — even though they were not defendants — in a case attorneys said Monday could have ramifications beyond the Lanham Act.
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June 24, 2024
5th Circ. Weighs 'Binding Authority' Of Gulf Fishery Council
A Fifth Circuit panel on Monday pushed back against the government's assertion that members of a council tasked with regulating fishing in federal waters do not count as federal officers, saying the council's ability to limit changes to federal rules "sounds like a legally binding authority."
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June 24, 2024
Harvard Prof Calls NFL Sunday Ticket 'Highly Anticompetitive'
A Harvard law professor testified Monday in a multibillion-dollar antitrust lawsuit over the NFL's Sunday Ticket that pooling teams' television rights into exclusive deals is not like Beyoncé having an exclusive music distributor — as an NFL expert testified — but like Beyoncé, Rihanna, Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish pooling rights.
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June 24, 2024
JPMorgan Should Save Data Sob Story For Feds, Argus Says
TransUnion and its data unit Argus Information & Advisory Services have told a Delaware federal judge that they plan to seek dismissal of a JPMorgan Chase & Co. lawsuit tied to their recent $37 million settlement with the government over claims that Argus misused credit card data it was collecting from banks on regulators' behalf.
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June 24, 2024
Judge Recommends Tossing VW Supplier's Antitrust Case
A magistrate judge has recommended that a Texas federal court toss a suit accusing Volkswagen of maintaining an illegal stranglehold over its suppliers after the Fifth Circuit told the court to consider if the dispute should be litigated in Germany instead of the U.S.
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June 24, 2024
Apple, Amazon Assail Hagens Berman's Class Rep 'Charade'
Apple and Amazon.com blasted Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP for trying to "have it both ways" in an antitrust suit over a pact between the companies restricting Amazon iPhone and iPad sales to approved vendors, arguing the firm cannot withdraw its original named plaintiff without forcing him to testify.
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June 24, 2024
Illinois, Other States Back FTC Bid To Affirm Intuit Ad Ruling
Illinois, along with 20 other states and the District of Columbia, defended the Federal Trade Commission in tax software giant Intuit's Fifth Circuit constitutional challenge to the agency's findings that the company engaged in deceptive advertising, saying in an amicus brief that the FTC's conclusion was correct.
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June 24, 2024
NC Life Insurer Slaps Ex-Agents With Poaching Suit
North Carolina-based life insurance company Equis Financial LLC accused nine former independent contractors who sold policies for the insurer of breaching their employment agreements when they left to work for a rival insurance marketing company.
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June 24, 2024
Broadband Advocates Urge FCC To Revisit Subsidy Fees
Advocates for broadband expansion are asking the Federal Communications Commission to revisit an April decision that exempted internet service providers, at least for now, from contributions to the FCC's telecom subsidy program.
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June 24, 2024
Australian, Canadian Uranium Miners Ink $835M Combo Deal
Australian mining company Paladin Energy Ltd. has agreed to buy Canada's Fission Uranium Corp. for CA$1.14 billion ($835 million), the companies said in a Monday statement.
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June 24, 2024
Junior Leaguers Are Offsides On Antitrust Claims, NHL Says
The NHL is looking to squash a putative antitrust class action from players in its developmental leagues alleging exploitation and abuse, telling a New York federal court that such disputes over pay and work conditions fall under the league's collective bargaining agreement and are shielded from antitrust scrutiny.
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June 24, 2024
Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court
Amendments to Delaware's General Corporation Law topped the news out of the Court of Chancery again last week, as the hotly contested measure sailed through the state's legislature. Tesla and its shareholders continued their tug-of-war over attorney fees for Chancery litigation about Elon Musk's pay package, and new cases were filed involving biotechs, car rental companies, workout platforms, telecom towers, and a cargo ship fire in Brazil.
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June 24, 2024
Fragrance Co. Fined €15.9M For Deleting WhatsApp Messages
The European Commission fined International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. €15.9 million ($17 million) on Monday, after enforcers said a senior employee deleted WhatsApp messages during an investigation of potential anti-competitive activity in the fragrance industry.
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June 24, 2024
Google's Brin, Pichai Must Face Texas Ad Tech Depos
Google CEO Sundar Pichai is bound for the deposition chair for four hours of testimony while company co-founder Sergey Brin is facing two and a half hours after a Texas federal judge refused Friday to spare the executives from a state enforcer antitrust lawsuit targeting the search giant's digital advertising placement technology.
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June 24, 2024
CSG Ups Purchase Price For Vista's Kinetic Group To $2B
Marking the latest update in its bid to scoop up Vista Outdoor Inc.'s various businesses, Czech defense company Czechoslovak Group AS has raised its proposal to purchase Vista's sporting products division to $2 billion, a $90 million increase over the original price lobbed by the defense company back in October.
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June 24, 2024
Covestro, Abu Dhabi Oil In 'Concrete' Talks For $12.5B Deal
German chemicals group Covestro AG said Monday it is advancing its talks to potentially sell the business to the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. after the United Arab Emirates' oil group upped its bid to more than €11.7 billion ($12.5 billion).
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June 24, 2024
Freshfields-Led Packager Sonoco Buying Eviosys For $3.9B
Hartsville, South Carolina-based packaging firm Sonoco Products Co. said Monday it has agreed to buy European food can maker Eviosys from private equity firm KPS Capital Partners for about $3.9 billion.
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June 24, 2024
Justices Won't Hear Objections To $2.67B BCBS Deal
The U.S. Supreme Court refused on Monday to review Home Depot's challenge of a $2.67 billion settlement in antitrust litigation targeting Blue Cross Blue Shield, along with a separate challenge of the attorney fees awarded for the deal.
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June 24, 2024
Apple Becomes 1st Target Of New EU Digital Markets Law
European authorities provisionally accused Apple's App Store of violating its new digital antitrust law designed to curtail the power of Big Tech, claiming the iPhone maker's guidelines unfairly prevent developers from steering consumers to alternative platforms.
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June 21, 2024
Apple Won't Offer AI Tools In EU Due To Regulatory Concerns
Apple confirmed Friday that the tech giant isn't planning on releasing new artificial intelligence features in the European Union this year due to "regulatory uncertainties" involving the bloc's new Digital Markets Act and the potential security risks that complying with the DMA could pose to Apple users.
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June 21, 2024
Drugmakers Decline To Drop Patent Listings After FTC Letters
The eight pharmaceutical companies that the Federal Trade Commission warned in April may have improperly listed patents for its products in a key federal database have chosen not to remove any patents or otherwise alter their listings, according to a document released Friday.
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June 21, 2024
Live Nation Investor Sues Leaders Over DOJ Antitrust Claims
Live Nation's executives and directors were hit with a shareholder derivative lawsuit Friday in California federal court that seeks damages in the wake of the U.S. Department of Justice's allegations that the company monopolized concert promotion and ticket sales following its 2010 merger with Ticketmaster.
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June 21, 2024
SC Agency Asks 4th Circ. To Rethink Google Ad Subpoena
South Carolina's parks and tourism department wants the Fourth Circuit to reconsider its order mandating the agency turn over documents about its own online advertising efforts to Google to aid the tech behemoth in a fight against several states accusing it of monopolization.
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June 21, 2024
Treasury Unveils Rules Curtailing Outbound Tech Investments
The U.S. Department of the Treasury on Friday proposed rules to implement President Joe Biden's executive order aimed at restricting American investments in certain technologies that China is developing, including artificial intelligence systems, that are deemed threats to national security.
Expert Analysis
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HHS Advisory Highlights Free Product Inducement Risks
A recent U.S. Department of Health and Human Services advisory opinion highlights concerns that valuable free products and other inducements may influence patients and providers to choose one manufacturer’s product over another, notwithstanding that such free healthcare products may be a benefit, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.
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Attorneys' Busiest Times Can Be Business Opportunities
Attorneys who resolve to grow their revenue and client base in 2024 should be careful not to abandon their goals when they get too busy with client work, because these periods of zero bandwidth can actually be a catalyst for future growth, says Amy Drysdale at Alchemy Consulting.
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In The World Of Legal Ethics, 10 Trends To Note From 2023
Lucian Pera at Adams and Reese and Trisha Rich at Holland & Knight identify the top legal ethics trends from 2023 — including issues related to hot documents, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity — that lawyers should be aware of to put their best foot forward.
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Opinion
Why Challenges To FTC Authority Are Needed
In spite of skepticism from courts, the Federal Trade Commission continues to advance novel legal theories — and Meta's recent federal suit against the agency over its alleged "structurally unconstitutional" administrative proceedings is arguably an expression of backlash to regulatory overreach, says Daniel Gilman at the International Center for Law & Economics.
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The Year In FRAND: What To Know Heading Into 2024
In 2023, there were eight significant developments concerning the fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory patent licensing regime that undergirds technical standardization, say Tom Millikan and Kevin Zeck at Perkins Coie.
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Volume-Based Transaction Pricing Proposal Raises Questions
A rule recently proposed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which would prohibit securities exchanges from offering volume-based transaction pricing for agency or riskless principal orders in certain stocks, is meant to address competitive concerns — but there are reasons to question the logic behind this proposal, say attorneys at Sidley.
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NCAA Proposal Points To A New NIL Compensation Frontier
Although NCAA President Charlie Baker's recent proposal for Division I institutions to pay student-athletes for name, image and likeness licensing deals is unlikely to pass in its current form, it shows that direct compensation for student-athletes is a looming reality — and member institutions should begin preparing in earnest, say attorneys at Pillsbury.
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Fed's New Swipe At Debit Fees Stirs Up Dilemma For Banks
The Federal Reserve's proposal to reduce the cap on debit card interchange fees charged or received by card issuers and payment networks comes as other bank account fees are taking regulatory hits, which could all culminate in an overall decline in access to banking products and services, says Kristen Larson at Ballard Spahr.
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Behind Antitrust Enforcers' 2023 Labor And Employment Push
This year, the U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission stepped up their already-considerable efforts to expand antitrust enforcement to labor and employment, a trend that is likely to continue into next year, say Benjamin Dryden and Richard Flannery at Foley & Lardner.
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How Attorneys Can Be More Efficient This Holiday Season
Attorneys should consider a few key tips to speed up their work during the holidays so they can join the festivities — from streamlining the document review process to creating similar folder structures, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.
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Exploring Middle-Market M&A Trends In 2023 And Beyond
Middle-market merger and acquisition activity this year was affected by a number of economic, legal and regulatory shifts, with certain trends pointing to favorable transaction conditions in 2024, say Jason Brauser and William Goodling at Stoel Rives.
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Series
Children's Book Writing Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Becoming a children's book author has opened doors to incredible new experiences of which I barely dared to dream, but the process has also changed my life by serving as a reminder that strong writing, networking and public speaking skills are hugely beneficial to a legal career, says Shaunna Bailey at Sheppard Mullin.
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Parsing 2023's Energy Markets Enforcement
A review of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's and Commodity Futures Trading Commission's recently released fiscal year 2023 enforcement reports highlight the significant energy market enforcement activities, litigation pursued and settlements reached by both agencies, as well as their respective strategic goals and focus areas, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.
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Hoopers In NCAA Suit Respark Eligibility Framework Debate
A decision by two brothers involved in a recent antitrust lawsuit against the NCAA — to play college basketball rather than go professional after graduating from the Overtime Elite league — has aimed the spotlight on what exactly the NCAA deems permissible compensation under its current framework, say Brady Foster and Dan Lust at Moritt Hock.
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Lessons From DOJ's Wave Of Labor Market Prosecutions
Attorneys at Patterson Belknap consider lessons learned and future meaningful challenges following the U.S. Department of Justice's first six criminal antitrust cases targeting employee no-poach and wage-fixing agreements, in which just one case resulted in a guilty plea.