Try our Advanced Search for more refined results
Competition
-
December 17, 2024
Telecom Seeks Win In DC Schools Network Bidding Challenge
A D.C. federal judge on Tuesday scrutinized Allied Telecom’s claims that the D.C. public school system flouted federal law by tapping one its own agencies to provide network services, questioning whether the preemption claims are the Northern Virginia telecom’s only avenue for bringing its challenge.
-
December 17, 2024
Google-Apple Collusion Plaintiff Asks 9th Circ. To Revive Suit
A California crane operator training school asked the Ninth Circuit on Monday to revive its case accusing Google of paying Apple to refrain from developing its own search engine in light of a recent Washington, D.C., federal judge's decision that Google monopolizes the search market.
-
December 17, 2024
FTC, Meta Fight Over Monopolization Trial Limits
Meta Platforms and the FTC are butting heads about how to structure the trial they are hurtling toward in April in D.C. federal court over the agency's monopolization claims, trading barbs Tuesday and trying to make their cases for how they think the multiweek trial should look.
-
December 17, 2024
Sandoz Cuts $275M Deal For More Price-Fixing Claims
Swiss drugmaker Sandoz said Tuesday it has reached a $275 million settlement to end claims from consumers, insurers and others in the sprawling multidistrict litigation over alleged price-fixing in the generic-drug industry.
-
December 17, 2024
DOJ Antitrust Division Head Kanter Stepping Down Friday
The head of the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division, Jonathan Kanter, announced his imminent departure Tuesday, leaving the agency after a little over three years and with a legacy of dramatically ramped-up monopolization enforcement, an extremely low tolerance for potentially problematic transactions and more aggressive criminal enforcement.
-
December 17, 2024
Mountain West Conference Hit With New Suit Over Exit Fees
Two schools sued the Mountain West Conference on Tuesday, alleging its punishing exit fees are stifling their ability to join the rival Pac-12 Conference, echoing Pac-12's antitrust case against Mountain West over supposed efforts to stifle Pac-12 recruitment.
-
December 17, 2024
T-Mobile-UScellular Link Will Help Consumers, Think Tank Says
A free-market think tank is urging the federal government to clear the way for T-Mobile's $4.4 billion purchase of UScellular's wireless operations, saying in a new report that because the smaller UScellular poses no real competitive threat to T-Mobile, the deal could carry significant consumer benefits through increased competition.
-
December 17, 2024
Visa Says 'Contradictory' Debit Card Market Dooms DOJ Suit
Visa Inc. formally asked a New York federal judge Monday to nix the U.S. Department of Justice monopolization lawsuit accusing it of paying off would-be debit network rivals and penalizing the use of alternate payment systems, arguing the government cannot mix-and-match its way into claiming the company holds a dominant market share.
-
December 17, 2024
Texas Judge Won't Pause Block Of Corp. Transparency Law
A Texas federal judge on Tuesday denied the government's request to stay his nationwide block of a corporate transparency law while an appeal is pending, saying his view that Congress lacks the constitutional authority to enact the legislation is likely to prevail at the Fifth Circuit.
-
December 17, 2024
Stanford Profs Say Roche's Trade Secret Claims Time-Barred
Stanford University's trustees and three of its professors have asked a California federal court to dismiss trade secret theft claims bought by subsidiaries of F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, arguing that the allegations are time-barred because the companies were on notice of the purported misappropriation for over three years before filing suit.
-
December 17, 2024
House GOP Asks CVS How Its PBM Treats Smaller Pharmacies
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are demanding documents from CVS on its pharmacy benefit manager's treatment of independent pharmacies, continuing to press the healthcare giant over potentially anticompetitive conduct.
-
December 17, 2024
Grubhub To Pay $25M To End FTC Suit Over Deceptive Tactics
The Federal Trade Commission and the Illinois attorney general teamed up Tuesday to announce a settlement that requires Grubhub Inc. to pay $25 million to resolve claims that the food-delivery service charged customers hidden junk fees, listed restaurants on its app without their permission and misled drivers about how much money they could make.
-
December 17, 2024
Rival Says In-Flight Internet Provider Gogo Foils Competitors
SmartSky Networks LLC is seeking more than $1 billion in damages in a new lawsuit accusing Gogo Business Aviation LLC of blocking its entry in the market for internet service on business flights, building on an intellectual property dispute between the companies.
-
December 17, 2024
Racing Teams Flag NASCAR's Dismissal Bid As 'Fantasy'
Two racing teams told a North Carolina federal court that NASCAR's bid to dismiss their antitrust lawsuit is a "fantasy" riddled with mischaracterizations that paint their clash as a simple contractual dispute instead of what it truly is — consequences of a monopoly.
-
December 17, 2024
Apple Fights Epic's Atty Privilege Challenge Win Over Docs
Apple has asked a California federal judge to overturn a magistrate judge and allow it to withhold documents in a discovery spat with Epic Games, arguing Monday the documents in the antitrust case aren't simply business analyses but rather, reflect "'legal advice on a business decision,' which is protected."
-
December 17, 2024
Carlsberg-Britvic £3.3B Deal Gets UK, EU Green Light
Antitrust authorities in the U.K. and Europe said Tuesday that they have cleared the planned £3.3 billion ($4.2 billion) takeover by Danish brewer Carlsberg of U.K. soft drinks maker Britvic PLC.
-
December 16, 2024
Lye Indirect Buyers Can't Certify Price Fixing Class
A New York federal judge denied a bid for class certification from indirect buyers of lye who allege manufacturers of the chemical colluded to inflate prices, saying Monday they didn't show common questions predominate for their proposed classes or that most members suffered an injury due to the alleged cartel.
-
December 16, 2024
'Plans Do Matter,' Tempur Sealy Says In Final Merger Hearing
Tempur Sealy made its final push Monday in support of its $4 billion planned Mattress Firm purchase, telling a judge during closing arguments that the Federal Trade Commission hadn't shown that the company planned to deviate from its intent for Mattress Firm to remain autonomous.
-
December 16, 2024
Merger Enforcers End Year On Upswing
The Biden administration's antitrust enforcers have boasted that one side effect of their aggressive approach to merger enforcement has been helping stop problematic deals from being cut in the first place, but the agencies also scored key court rulings blocking transactions in their final year that could have a more enduring effect.
-
December 16, 2024
Court Approves Mandated $115M Door Factory Sale
A Virginia federal court has approved the planned $115 million sale of a door-skin manufacturing plant after a landmark order forced Jeld-Wen to unload the factory in a long-running private antitrust case by rival Steves & Sons Inc.
-
December 16, 2024
Disney, Fox And Warner Bros. Can't Duck Fubo's Antitrust Suit
A New York federal court refused dismissal bids Friday from Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery as they tried to duck an antitrust case over their sports-only streaming service, and also denied Fox's motion to sever the claims against it and transfer the venue to the Central District of California.
-
December 16, 2024
Sony To Pay $7.8M To 4M PlayStation Gamers In Antitrust Fight
Sony Interactive Entertainment will pay $7.85 million to more than 4 million gamers to settle a proposed class action accusing the company of overcharging PlayStation Store customers via a monopoly on downloadable game cards, according to a motion for preliminary approval filed Friday in California federal court.
-
December 16, 2024
Cos. Urge Judge To Maintain Injunction On Transparency Law
A Texas federal judge doesn't need to stay his preliminary injunction on the rollout of new corporate transparency rules while the U.S. government's appeal of his decision is pending at the Fifth Circuit, a business lobbying group and others said Monday.
-
December 16, 2024
Albertsons Says Kroger 'Squandered' $25B Merger Bid
The Kroger Co. Inc. "willfully squandered" opportunities to complete a now-blocked $24.6 billion mega-merger with Albertsons Cos. Inc., according to an unsealed five-count lawsuit in Delaware's Court of Chancery potentially seeking billions in damages.
-
December 13, 2024
OpenAI Slams Musk's 'Evidence-Free' Bid To Block For-Profit
OpenAI urged a California federal judge Friday to reject Elon Musk's bid to block the artificial intelligence research organization from transitioning into a for-profit enterprise, scoffing at Musk's assertions of anticompetitive practices and arguing that the injunctive motion is "just another evidence-free effort to harass a competitor."
Expert Analysis
-
Lead Like 'Ted Lasso' By Embracing Cognitive Diversity
The Apple TV+ series “Ted Lasso” aptly illustrates how embracing cognitive diversity can be a winning strategy for teams, providing a useful lesson for law firms, which can benefit significantly from fresh, diverse perspectives and collaborative problem-solving, says Paul Manuele at PR Manuele Consulting.
-
Takeaways From EU's Initial Findings On Apple's App Store
A deep dive into the European Commission's recent preliminary findings that Apple's App Store rules are in breach of the Digital Markets Act reveal that enforcement of the EU's Big Tech law might go beyond the literal text of the regulation and more toward the spirit of compliance, say William Dolan and Pratik Agarwal at Rule Garza.
-
A Simple Proposal For Improving E-Discovery In MDLs
Given the importance of e-discovery in multidistrict litigation, courts, parties and counsel shouldn't have to reinvent the wheel in each newly consolidated case — and a simple process for sharing e-discovery lessons and knowledge across MDLs could benefit everyone involved, particularly clients, say Benjamin Barnett and Shauna Itri at Seeger Weiss.
-
Opinion
Now More Than Ever, Lawyers Must Exhibit Professionalism
As society becomes increasingly fractured and workplace incivility is on the rise, attorneys must champion professionalism and lead by example, demonstrating how lawyers can respectfully disagree without being disagreeable, says Edward Casmere at Norton Rose.
-
A Look At State AGs Supermarket Antitrust Enforcement Push
The ongoing antitrust intervention by state attorneys general in the proposed Kroger and Albertsons merger suggests that states are straying from a Federal Trade Commission follow-on strategy in the supermarket space, which involved joining federal investigations or lawsuits and settling for the same divestment remedies, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.
-
The Show Must Go On: Noncompete Uncertainty In Film, TV
The Federal Trade Commission has taken action to ban noncompetes while the entertainment industry is in the midst of a massive shift away from traditional media, so it is important for studio heads and content owners alike to understand the fate of the rule and their options going forward, say Christopher Chatham and Douglas Smith at Manatt.
-
Series
Serving In The National Guard Makes Me A Better Lawyer
My ongoing military experience as a judge advocate general in the National Guard has shaped me as a person and a lawyer, teaching me the importance of embracing confidence, balance and teamwork in both my Army and civilian roles, says Danielle Aymond at Baker Donelson.
-
Big Business May Come To Rue The Post-Administrative State
Many have framed the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decisions overturning Chevron deference and extending the window to challenge regulations as big wins for big business, but sand in the gears of agency rulemaking may be a double-edged sword, creating prolonged uncertainty that impedes businesses’ ability to plan for the future, says Todd Baker at Columbia University.
-
A Midyear Forecast: Tailwinds Expected For Atty Hourly Rates
Hourly rates for partners, associates and support staff continued to rise in the first half of this year, and this growth shows no signs of slowing for the rest of 2024 and into next year, driven in part by the return of mergers and acquisitions and the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence, says Chuck Chandler at Valeo Partners.
-
Opinion
Cell Tech Patent Holdup Is Stalling Automaker Innovation
Courts and Congress should seek to stem anticompetitive harm caused by standard-essential patent holders squeezing automakers with unfairly high royalties for cellular connectivity technology, says Charles Haake at Alliance for Automotive Innovation.
-
Mitigating Risks Amid 10-Year Sanctions Enforcement Window
In response to recent legislation, which doubles the statute of limitations for actions related to certain U.S. sanctions and provides regulators greater opportunity to investigate possible violations, companies should take specific steps to account for the increased civil and criminal enforcement risk, say attorneys at Freshfields.
-
Opinion
States Should Loosen Law Firm Ownership Restrictions
Despite growing buzz, normalized nonlawyer ownership of law firms is a distant prospect, so the legal community should focus first on liberalizing state restrictions on attorney and firm purchases of practices, which would bolster succession planning and improve access to justice, says Michael Di Gennaro at The Law Practice Exchange.
-
FBI Raid Signals Growing Criminal Enforcement Of Algorithms
The U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division's increased willingness to pursue the use of algorithmic pricing as a potential criminal violation means that companies need to understand the software solutions they employ and stay abreast of antitrust best practices when contracting with providers, say attorneys at Rule Garza.
-
Series
Solving Puzzles Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Tackling daily puzzles — like Wordle, KenKen and Connections — has bolstered my intellectual property litigation practice by helping me to exercise different mental skills, acknowledge minor but important details, and build and reinforce good habits, says Roy Wepner at Kaplan Breyer.
-
What UK Digital Markets Act Will Mean For Competition Law
The new Digital Markets Act’s reforms will strengthen the Competition and Markets Authority's investigatory and enforcement powers across its full remit of merger control and antitrust investigations, representing a seismic shift in the U.K. competition and consumer law landscape, say lawyers at Travers Smith.