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Competition
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October 11, 2024
M&A Dispute Triggers Could Shift Moving Into 2025
Legal disputes are a fact of life when it comes to mergers and acquisitions, but the deal provisions seen as the most likely to spur conflict have shifted since the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have subsided, according to attorneys surveyed in a new report from Berkeley Research Group.
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October 11, 2024
FTC's Republicans Take Aim At Agency Merger Data
The Federal Trade Commission's two Republican members criticized a long-standing agency policy of reporting "abandoned" transactions that were never notified to the antitrust agencies as wins, while dissenting from an annual congressional report on merger reviews.
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October 11, 2024
Huawei Judge Asks If Netgear Suit Stretches Antitrust Law
A California federal judge expressed some skepticism Friday about allowing router maker Netgear Inc. to proceed with monopolization claims over Huawei Technologies Co.'s patents, wondering aloud whether this would amount to "saying any breach of contract claim can be turned into an antitrust case."
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October 11, 2024
DC's Amazon Antitrust Suit Gets January 2027 Trial Date
The District of Columbia attorney general's newly revived antitrust lawsuit against Amazon will go to trial in January 2027, a D.C. judge decided Friday.
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October 11, 2024
Swiss Officials Clear Novartis IP Suits As 'Common Practice'
Swiss authorities have dropped their antitrust probe into patent suits Novartis lodged against rival Eli Lilly and others over psoriasis treatment Cosentyx, saying Novartis' actions were aboveboard.
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October 11, 2024
FCC Pressed To Revisit Local Network Unbundling Rules
An organization representing schools and libraries is once again urging the Federal Communications Commission to restore unbundling rules for local telecom incumbents, telling the agency that the FCC's Trump-era move to loosen the regulations has reduced competition among E-rate providers.
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October 11, 2024
Boston Dynamics 'Took Advantage' Of Partner's Robotics IP
Robot maker Boston Dynamics engaged in a "flagrant and secretive" breach of its nondisclosure agreement with a manufacturer by enabling a competitor to "reverse engineer" components it had built for the Massachusetts company, according to a state court lawsuit.
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October 11, 2024
Dems Ask FTC About Price-Gouging Ban After Hurricanes
The ravaging of the Southeast U.S. by Hurricanes Helene and Milton has left affected communities desperate for basic necessities, leading to concerns of price-gouging, and a group of Democratic lawmakers wants the Federal Trade Commission to weigh in on whether there should be a federal ban on the practice.
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October 11, 2024
Off The Bench: NCAA's NIL Deal Advances, QB Settles Again
In this week's Off The Bench, the NCAA and the athletes suing it over name, image and likeness money satisfy a judge with their proposed settlement revisions, an NFL quarterback settles yet another sexual assault accusation, and a legal battle between the NFL and one of its former reporters ends amicably.
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October 11, 2024
RTX Warned By Judge Over 'Troubling' Settlement Delay
A Massachusetts federal judge on Friday chided RTX for slow-walking the finalization of a settlement the defense contractor struck with a Connecticut company just before trial in a trade secrets dispute.
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October 11, 2024
Nippon To Sell JV Stake For $1 In Push To Close US Steel Deal
Japan's Nippon Steel said Friday it has agreed to sell its stake in a 50-50 joint venture with ArcelorMittal to the European steelmaker for just $1, as Nippon seeks to address any antitrust concerns over its planned $14.9 billion acquisition of U.S. Steel.
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October 10, 2024
Amazon Must Give FTC Doc On Prime 'Upsells'
Amazon will have to turn over to the Federal Trade Commission the details of a presentation it made outlining how it upsells its Prime subscriptions as part of an enforcement lawsuit accusing the e-commerce behemoth of duping customers into signing up for the service.
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October 10, 2024
FTC's Final Merger Filings Overhaul Drops Labor Market Look
The Federal Trade Commission on Thursday finalized its long-awaited overhaul to U.S. merger filing rules, dropping initial proposed requirements to submit preliminary deal drafts and labor market details, while also reinstating the "early termination" of reviews of benign tie-ups.
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October 10, 2024
SEC Sues Crypto Arm Of Proprietary Trading Firm DRW
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accused the crypto-focused subsidiary of proprietary trading firm DRW Holdings of operating as an unregistered securities dealer by effecting more than $2 billion in crypto transactions, according to a complaint filed Thursday in Illinois federal court.
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October 10, 2024
OpenAI Calls Musk's Fraud, RICO Suit A Harassing Biz Move
OpenAI asked a California federal judge to toss Elon Musk's claims that the artificial intelligence venture and its top brass engaged in fraud by deciding to make OpenAI a for-profit company, claiming Musk "has been trying to leverage the judicial system for an edge" since launching a competing AI company.
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October 10, 2024
IP Forecast: 5G Patent Case Spells Deja Vu For EDTX
A patent suit against a Chinese phone company will go before a new federal jury in the Eastern District of Texas after the judge scrapped the original $10.6 million verdict against it as excessive. Here's a spotlight on that case — plus all the other major intellectual property matters on deck in the coming week.
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October 10, 2024
Most Appian Claims Survive In Pegasystems Defamation Fight
A Massachusetts federal judge has allowed most counterclaims from business software company Appian Corp. to proceed against rival Pegasystems Inc., which accused its competitor in a lawsuit of making deliberately malicious statements and representations regarding a trade secret case the parties are litigating in Virginia.
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October 10, 2024
Homebuyers Tell 8th Circ. Broker Deal Gives Them Nothing
Homebuyers are urging the Eighth Circuit to undo the approval of $208.5 million in settlements struck by real estate brokerages in the sprawling litigation over industry rules covering broker fees, saying the deals only provide money for sellers.
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October 10, 2024
Hurricane Delays Key Deadlines In NASCAR Antitrust Suit
A North Carolina federal judge is delaying a key hearing in the ongoing monopoly suit between Michael Jordan's racing team and NASCAR, granting the motorsports league's request for more time as its employees deal with the impact of Hurricane Milton.
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October 10, 2024
Teva To Pay $450M To Settle Kickback Cases
Pharmaceutical giant Teva will pay $450 million to settle allegations it violated the False Claims Act by fixing the prices of several generic drugs and by raising the price of a multiple sclerosis treatment while covering Medicare recipients' copays, civil prosecutors said Thursday.
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October 10, 2024
Sen. Warren, Novo At Odds On Merits Of $16.5B Deal
Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Thursday raised the alarm on Novo Holdings' planned $16.5 billion purchase of Catalent, arguing the transaction could give Novo "unprecedented" control over the production of certain obesity drugs by Eli Lilly and other top competitors, but Novo insists the deal would give it no such edge.
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October 10, 2024
Ivy League Athletes Whiff On Scholarship Antitrust Suit
A Connecticut federal judge on Wednesday snuffed out a proposed antitrust class action from college athletes challenging the Ivy League's longstanding ban on athletic scholarships, ruling the complaint did not identify a specific market harmed by the policy.
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October 10, 2024
Quinn Emanuel Adds Of Counsel Atty, 6 Associates In Miami
Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP's 3-year-old Miami office has just surpassed the 20-lawyer mark with the addition of seven attorneys in the past two months.
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October 09, 2024
Colo. Accuses Albertsons Of Competitor Flip-Flop For Merger
Colorado enforcers accused Albertsons of "saying whatever they think will get their merger," confronting the supermarket chain's CEO on Wednesday with past comments to federal regulators they said showed that Albertsons flipped who it considers a competitor ahead of a proposed merger with Kroger.
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October 09, 2024
Blank Rome Attys Beat DQ Bid Over Witness Contact
A Philadelphia federal judge Wednesday refused to disqualify Blank Rome from representing three of its attorneys facing claims they brought a baseless lawsuit against another attorney in retaliation for switching from corporate defense to the plaintiffs bar.
Expert Analysis
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Series
Playing Chess Makes Me A Better Lawyer
There are many ways that chess skills translate directly into lawyer skills, but for me, the bigger career lessons go beyond the direct parallels — playing chess has shown me the value of seeing gradual improvement in and focusing deep concentration on a nonwork endeavor, says attorney Steven Fink.
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Key FCC Enforcement Issues In AT&T Location Data Appeal
AT&T’s decision to challenge a $57 million fine from the Federal Communications Commission for its alleged treatment of customer location information highlights interesting and fundamental issues about the constitutionality of FCC enforcement, say Patrick O’Donnell and Jason Neal at HWG.
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Litigation Inspiration: Attys Can Be Heroic Like Olympians
Although litigation won’t earn anyone an Olympic medal in Paris this summer, it can be worthy of the same lasting honor if attorneys exercise focused restraint — seeking both their clients’ interests and those of the court — instead of merely pursuing every advantage short of sanctionable conduct, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.
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What TikTok's Race Against The Clock Teaches Chinese Firms
The Biden administration's recent divestiture deadline on TikTok parent ByteDance provides useful information for other China-based companies looking to do business in the U.S., including the need to keep products for each market separate and implement firewalls at the design stage, says Richard Lomuscio at Stinson.
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Updated Federal Rules Can Improve Product Liability MDLs
The recent amendment of a federal evidence rule regarding expert testimony and the proposal of a civil rule on managing early discovery in multidistrict legislation hold great promise for promoting the uniform and efficient processes that high-stakes product liability cases particularly need, say Alan Klein and William Heaston at Duane Morris.
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Lean Into The 'Great Restoration' To Retain Legal Talent
As the “great resignation,” in which employees voluntarily left their jobs in droves, has largely dissipated, legal employers should now work toward the idea of a “great restoration,” adopting strategies to effectively hire, onboard and retain top legal talent, says Molly McGrath at Hiring & Empowering Solutions.
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Live Nation May Shake It Off In A Long Game With The DOJ
Don't expect a swift resolution in the U.S. Department of Justice's case against Live Nation, but a long litigation, with the company likely to represent itself as the creator of a competitive ecosystem, and the government faced with explaining how the ticketing giant formed under its watch, say Thomas Kliebhan and Taylor Hixon at GRSM50.
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NCAA Settlement May End The NIL Model As We Know It
The recent House v. NCAA settlement in California federal court, in which the NCAA agreed to allow schools to directly pay March Madness television revenue to their athletes, may send outside name, image and likeness collectives in-house, says Mike Ingersoll at Womble Bond.
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Opinion
The FTC And DOJ Should Backtrack On RealPage
The antitrust agencies ought to reverse course on their enforcement actions against RealPage, which are based on a faulty legal premise, risk further property shortages and threaten the use of algorithms that are central to the U.S. economy, says Thomas Stratmann at George Mason University.
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Series
Fishing Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Atop the list of ways fishing makes me a better lawyer is the relief it offers from the chronic stress of a demanding caseload, but it has also improved my listening skills and patience, and has served as an exceptional setting for building earnest relationships, says Steven DeGeorge at Robinson Bradshaw.
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Exploring Alternatives To Noncompetes Ahead Of FTC Ban
Ahead of the Sept. 4 effective date for the Federal Trade Commission's noncompete ban, employers should seek new ways to protect their proprietary and other sensitive information, including by revising existing confidentiality and nondisclosure agreements, says Harvey Linder at Culhane.
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A Healthier Legal Industry Starts With Emotional Intelligence
The legal profession has long been plagued by high rates of mental health issues, in part due to attorneys’ early training and broader societal stereotypes — but developing one’s emotional intelligence is one way to foster positive change, collectively and individually, says attorney Esperanza Franco.
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To Make Your Legal Writing Clear, Emulate A Master Chef
To deliver clear and effective written advocacy, lawyers should follow the model of a fine dining chef — seasoning a foundation of pure facts with punchy descriptors, spicing it up with analogies, refining the recipe and trimming the fat — thus catering to a sophisticated audience of decision-makers, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.
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Circuit Judge Writes An Opinion, AI Helps: What Now?
Last week's Eleventh Circuit opinion in Snell v. United Specialty Insurance, notable for a concurrence outlining the use of artificial intelligence to evaluate a term's common meaning, is hopefully the first step toward developing a coherent basis for the judiciary's generative AI use, says David Zaslowsky at Baker McKenzie.
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A Look At M&A Conditions After FTC's Exxon-Pioneer Nod
The Federal Trade Commission's recent consent decree imposing several conditions on Exxon Mobil's acquisition of Pioneer Natural Resources helps illustrate key points about the current merger enforcement environment, including the probability of further investigations in the energy and pharmaceutical sectors, say Ryan Quillian and John Kendrick at Covington.