Competition

  • December 03, 2024

    Former Officials Target DOJ, FTC Position In Epic V. Google

    The U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission drew criticism Tuesday from former officials who targeted the agencies' stance on Google's Ninth Circuit fight against the mandated opening of the Android Play Store, with the officials warning in an amicus brief against "compulsory sharing obligations."

  • December 03, 2024

    Chancery Orders Revenue Trust For Healthcare Co. 'Poaching'

    A home health company formed through secret poaching by an allegedly disloyal former CEO, two officers and two private equities has been ordered to earmark much of its future revenue to a trust for the corporate victims, in a Delaware Court of Chancery ruling that described the subterfuge as "stunning."

  • December 03, 2024

    $1B Sandoz Placeholder Bid Needs More Support, Judge Says

    A Connecticut federal judge on Tuesday said he cannot force Novartis spinoff Sandoz Inc. to set aside a $1 billion litigation placeholder in a generic drug pricing lawsuit without hearing whether the state attorney general can enforce possible orders in other states where the pharmaceutical company keeps assets.

  • December 03, 2024

    Bearing Maker Settles With RTX, Rival In Trade Secrets Case

    A Connecticut roller bearing company has settled its lawsuits accusing military supplier RTX and a competitor of misusing trade secrets related to the design of a U.S. military bomb, after earlier delays in reaching an agreement.

  • December 03, 2024

    Monthly Merger Review Snapshot

    The U.S. Department of Justice moved to block a $3 billion UnitedHealth Group deal, a pair of fashion brand companies abandoned their planned tie-up and the Federal Trade Commission pushed its bid to pause Tempur Sealy's $4 billion purchase of retailer Mattress Firm.

  • December 03, 2024

    AmEx Loses Arbitration Bid Due To 'Ironic' Unpaid $17M Bill

    A Rhode Island federal judge on Monday rejected sending a proposed antitrust class action over American Express Co.'s swipe-fee rules back to arbitration after the company refused to pay arbitration fees totaling $17 million, observing that AmEx's actions created its own "ironic dilemma: a credit card company not paying its bills."

  • December 03, 2024

    Microsoft Asks FTC Watchdog To Look Into Leaked Probe

    A Microsoft deputy general counsel on Tuesday asked the Federal Trade Commission's inspector general to look into whether commission management improperly told a news outlet that the FTC had opened a broad antitrust investigation of the tech giant.

  • December 03, 2024

    Google Wants Ad Tech Claims In Texas Heard By Judge, Not Jury

    Google is pushing to have the Texas-led antitrust case targeting its digital ad technology tried to a judge instead of a jury, saying state enforcers are not entitled to have a jury decide whether the company violated the law or what penalties should be imposed if it did.

  • December 03, 2024

    PE-Backed Anesthesia Giant Can't Duck Antitrust Claims

    A New York federal judge refused to nix a Syracuse hospital's antitrust damages claims against North America's largest anesthesia provider, finding the alleged multimillion-dollar costs incurred from understaffing and overpayment can be traced to noncompete agreements locking in anesthesiologists and nurse anesthetists.

  • December 03, 2024

    CSX Asks High Court to Weigh Norfolk Southern Rate Case

    CSX has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a Fourth Circuit ruling that the rail giant's antitrust lawsuit against Norfolk Southern over a switching line the two railroads own was outside the statute of limitations.

  • December 03, 2024

    NASCAR Calls Lawsuit Bluster Wrapped In 'Antitrust Garb'

    NASCAR has encouraged a North Carolina federal court to toss a lawsuit filed by two racing teams, arguing their objection to the league's charter system is simply a misguided attempt to "dress up private business frustrations in antitrust garb."

  • December 03, 2024

    Data Caps Harm Consumers, Rural Electric Co-Ops Tell FCC

    As the Federal Communications Commission considers the impact of data caps some broadband providers impose on internet service plans, rural electric cooperatives have told the commission that caps are bad for consumers and that their own business model for broadband does not involve such usage limits.

  • December 03, 2024

    No Standing In 'Threadbare' Voice Assistant Suit, Google Says

    Google wants a D.C. federal judge to toss a lawsuit accusing the tech giant of blocking rival voice assistant products from running on Android and other devices, contending that the complaint has failed to articulate an injury "with even a modicum of detail."

  • December 03, 2024

    Baker Botts Brings Back Antitrust Atty In DC

    Baker Botts LLP welcomed back on Tuesday an antitrust attorney once with the firm who most recently spent time at A&O Sherman.

  • December 03, 2024

    Blank Rome Beats Subpoenas Seeking Attys' Comp Info

    A Philadelphia federal judge on Tuesday tossed subpoenas that would have compelled Blank Rome LLP to share compensation information regarding three of its attorneys who are facing a malicious prosecution lawsuit, a day after the firm moved to quash the subpoenas.

  • December 03, 2024

    Tech Giants Seek Firm's Communications With Elusive Client

    Apple and Amazon want Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP to turn over texts and emails with a client who disappeared from a putative class action against the tech giants, to determine whether the plaintiff consented to the case continuing in his absence.

  • December 03, 2024

    McCarter & English Adds Ex-DOJ Antitrust Atty In DC

    McCarter & English has hired a new partner and former Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati PC senior counsel, who started her career working on antitrust issues for the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., the firm announced Tuesday.

  • December 03, 2024

    Consumers Settle £10B Mastercard Swipe Fees Class Action

    Representatives of more than 45 million U.K. consumers confirmed Tuesday that they had settled a multibillion-pound claim against Mastercard over its fees, which is likely to end one of the first cases to test the boundaries of Britain's collective proceedings regime.

  • December 03, 2024

    Ballard Spahr Adds Fox Rothschild's Antitrust Co-Lead In DC

    Ballard Spahr LLP has hired the former co-chair of Fox Rothschild LLP's antitrust practice, who joined the firm in D.C. just two months after it hired a former practice co-lead from Carlton Fields.

  • December 03, 2024

    Retailers Argue For Higher Damages Bill In Swipe Fees Trial

    Retailers suing Mastercard and Visa argued before the Court of Appeal on Tuesday that their damages bill from alleged unlawful overcharging by the card companies should incorporate continuing losses because the anticompetitive conduct has not yet stopped.

  • December 03, 2024

    UK Watchdog Probes BlackRock Deal For Data Co. Preqin

    The U.K.'s competition regulator said on Tuesday it is delving into whether private equity giant BlackRock Inc.'s proposed £2.55 billion ($3.2 billion) acquisition of private markets data provider Preqin would harm competition in U.K. markets.

  • December 03, 2024

    Trump Pledges To Block $14.9B US Steel-Nippon Deal

    President-elect Donald Trump has reiterated his opposition to the proposed $14.9 billion acquisition of Pennsylvania-based U.S. Steel by Japan's Nippon Steel, pledging on Truth Social to block the deal and virtually extinguishing any remaining glimmers of hope that it can get done.

  • December 03, 2024

    Microsoft Faces £1B Class Action Over Software Overcharging

    Microsoft was hit on Tuesday with a class action of more than £1 billion ($1.3 billion) brought on behalf of thousands of U.K. businesses alleging that it overcharged for licensing fees to its Windows Server, a software used in cloud computing.

  • December 03, 2024

    Motorists Reach £37M Settlement In Shipping Cartel Case

    Millions of motorists who allegedly overpaid for their cars have reached a £37.3 million ($47.3 million) settlement against two vehicle shipping companies in an opt-out class action before a trial in January, lawyers representing the group said Tuesday. 

  • December 02, 2024

    ByteDance Says Ex-Worker Can't Avoid Counterclaims

    TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, says a former engineer shouldn't be able to dodge its counterclaims in a dispute stemming from his termination, arguing that just because he wants to drop his allegations doesn't mean those counterclaims are moot.

Expert Analysis

  • Takeaways From Novo Nordisk's Fight For Market Exclusivity

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    Generic competitors’ challenge to Novo Nordisk’s patents in hopes of capturing a portion of the rapidly expanding Type 2 diabetes and obesity treatment market highlights the role of abbreviated new drug application litigation, inter partes review and multidistrict litigation in patent defense, says Pedram Sameni at Patexia.

  • Managing Sanctions Defense Across Multiple Jurisdictions

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    Companies called before multiple regulators to account for the same conduct in this era of increased global sanctions and import-control enforcement should consider national differences in law and policy, and proactively coordinate their responses in certain key areas, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.

  • Takeaways From TOTSA Settlement And Critical CFTC Dissent

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    The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission's recent settlement with TOTSA highlights the agency's commitment to enforcing market integrity and deterring manipulative practices, while Commissioner Caroline Pham's dissent to the settlement spotlights the need for transparency and consistency in enforcement actions, say attorneys at Davis Wright.

  • Building US-Japan Relationships In The M&A Market

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    The prospect of U.S.-Japanese mergers and acquisitions presents stronger competition to U.S. investors in the global M&A markets, while also opening up an additional exit route for sellers looking to offload strategic assets, says Nick Wall at A&O Shearman.

  • Litigation Inspiration: Honoring Your Learned Profession

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    About 30,000 people who took the bar exam in July will learn they passed this fall, marking a fitting time for all attorneys to remember that they are members in a specialty club of learned professionals — and the more they can keep this in mind, the more benefits they will see, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.

  • FTC Focus: How Scrutiny Of PBMs And Insulin May Play Out

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    Should Express Scripts' recent judicial challenge to the Federal Trade Commission succeed, any new targets could add litigation and choice of forum to their playbooks, and potential FTC court action on insulin could be forced to parallel venues as the issues between the commission and PBMs evolve, say attorneys at Proskauer.

  • Opinion

    AI May Limit Key Learning Opportunities For Young Attorneys

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    The thing that’s so powerful about artificial intelligence is also what’s most scary about it — its ability to detect patterns may curtail young attorneys’ chance to practice the lower-level work of managing cases, preventing them from ever honing the pattern recognition skills that undergird creative lawyering, says Sarah Murray at Trialcraft.

  • A Class Action Trend Tests Limit Of Courts' Equity Powers

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    A troubling trend has developed in federal class action litigation as some counsel and judges attempt to push injunctive relief classes under Rule 23(b)(2) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure beyond the traditional limits of federal courts' equitable powers, say attorneys at Jones Day.

  • Antitrust Issues To Watch Amid Google Ad Tech Trial

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    Regardless of the outcome of the U.S. Department of Justice's advertising technology antitrust suit against Google in Virginia federal court, matters ranging from market definition to unified pricing will likely have far-reaching implications for the digital advertising industry, competition and innovation, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.

  • How Lucia, Jarkesy Could Affect Grocery Merger Challenge

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    While the Federal Trade Commission is taking a dual federal court and administrative tribunal approach to block Kroger's merger with Alberstons, Kroger's long-shot unconstitutionality claims could potentially lead to a reevaluation of the FTC's reliance on administrative processes in complex merger cases, say attorneys at Saul Ewing.

  • What PCOAB's Broadened Liability Rule Means For Auditors

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s recent vote agreeing to lower the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board's liability standard, allowing the board to charge individual auditors whose mere negligence leads firms into PCOAB violations, may erode inspection cooperation, shrink the talent pool and have anticompetitive outcomes, say attorneys at BakerHostetler.

  • Series

    Round-Canopy Parachuting Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Similar to the practice of law, jumping from an in-flight airplane with nothing but training and a few yards of parachute silk is a demanding and stressful endeavor, and the experience has bolstered my legal practice by enhancing my focus, teamwork skills and sense of perspective, says Thomas Salerno at Stinson.

  • And Now A Word From The Panel: The MDL Map

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    An intriguing yet unpredictable facet of multidistrict litigation practice is venue selection for new MDL proceedings, and the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation considers many factors when it assigns an MDL venue, says Alan Rothman at Sidley Austin.

  • Dealmaker Lessons From CFIUS' New Enforcement Webpage

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    The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States’ recently launched webpage, which details the actions — and inactions — that led to enforcement activity, provides important insights for dealmakers about filing requirements, mitigation commitments and the cost of noncompliance, say attorneys at Dechert.

  • Presidents And Precedents May Direct Khan's Future Course

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    While the Sept. 25 technical expiration of Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan's term demands no immediate action, it does invite an analysis of commission policy and post-election possibilities, says Axinn's Richard Dagen, a former FTC official.

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