Competition

  • June 26, 2024

    Ex-Ticketmaster Exec Pleads Guilty In Hacking Case

    A former director of client relations at Ticketmaster pled guilty Wednesday to taking part in a scheme to hack into a rival company's computer system in an attempt to gain a competitive advantage.

  • June 26, 2024

    Apple Watch Improvement Is 'Inferior,' Docs Tell 9th Circ.

    Four cardiac specialists backed medical monitoring startup AliveCor against Apple in a Ninth Circuit amicus brief Tuesday arguing a district court wrongly nixed antitrust claims by crediting the phaseout of a heart rate monitoring algorithm as an improvement when all it did was deny patient access to "potentially life-saving" technology.

  • June 26, 2024

    Six Flags, Cedar To Close $8B Merger Following DOJ OK

    Six Flags Entertainment Corp. and Ohio-based amusement park peer Cedar Fair LP have cleared regulatory scrutiny from the U.S. Department of Justice, paving the way for a July 1 closing of the two companies' previously announced blockbuster $8 billion merger.

  • June 26, 2024

    Rep. Seeks Info On Sex Allegations Against Ex-GMU Law Prof

    The chair of the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce has requested information in a letter to the president of George Mason University and its law school's dean regarding the institution's response to sexual misconduct allegations against former professor Joshua Wright, who is also a former Federal Trade Commission commissioner.

  • June 26, 2024

    Akerman Adds Foley Hoag Corporate Atty In DC

    Akerman hired a competition counsel from Foley Hoag LLP in Washington who spent the past four and half years representing clients in a range of antitrust matters.

  • June 26, 2024

    MNC Capital Makes 'Final' $3.2B Offer For Vista Outdoor

    MNC Capital Partners LP said Wednesday it has bumped up its all-cash offer to buy Vista Outdoor Inc. to $42 per share, or about $3.2 billion, in its final bid to scoop up the sporting goods maker.

  • June 25, 2024

    Disney Must Face Trimmed ESPN Streaming Fee Antitrust Suit

    A California federal judge on Tuesday threw out some antitrust claims in a sprawling proposed class action over Disney's ESPN livestreaming carriage agreements, although he permitted other portions of the suit to proceed, finding that consumers have adequately alleged Disney's actions could have hobbled competition.

  • June 25, 2024

    NFL Moves To Sack Commercial Class In Sunday Ticket Trial

    An attorney for the NFL argued on the eve of closing arguments Tuesday that jurors shouldn't be allowed to consider damages for one of two plaintiff classes in a multibillion-dollar antitrust trial over the league's DirecTV Sunday Ticket television package. 

  • June 25, 2024

    Tuna Buyers Settle $1B Price-Fixing Claims Before July Trial

    Tuna buyers seeking $1 billion in damages over allegations that StarKist, its parent company and a private investment firm that put money into Bumble Bee Foods conspired to hike the price of the tinned fish have reached settlements just ahead of trial, according to a California federal judge's order Tuesday.

  • June 25, 2024

    Google Says Epic's Play Store Changes Could Cost $137M

    Google urged a California federal judge Monday to reject Epic Games' proposed Play Store remedies following Epic Games' antitrust jury trial win, arguing that the changes could cost up to $137 million plus ongoing maintenance costs and create new security risks while potentially harming Google's reputation.

  • June 25, 2024

    Judge Likely To Block Medical Record Co.'s Anti-Bot CAPTCHAs

    A Maryland federal judge appeared ready to enjoin electronic medical records company PointClickCare from restricting nursing home analytics company Real Time Medical Systems' automated access to its online repositories Tuesday, potentially taking an early crack at defining the 21st Century Cures Act's data sharing provisions.

  • June 25, 2024

    USDA Tackles 'Inconsistent' Court Handling Of Packers Suits

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture sought Tuesday to empower itself, and perhaps individual farmers, in lawsuits against allegedly unfair practices in the livestock, meat and poultry industries, by proposing a new rule that would replace the current case-by-case adjudication of what counts as a violation of the Packers and Stockyards Act.

  • June 25, 2024

    NY Judge Rejects Visa, Mastercard Fee Deal

    A New York federal judge handling multidistrict litigation over Visa and Mastercard merchant fees rejected a proposed settlement for equitable relief and recommended a case from Grubhub be sent back to Illinois, making good on a suggestion she shared at a previous hearing.

  • June 25, 2024

    FCC Says Anti-Redlining Rule 'Dutifully' Carries Out Law

    The Federal Communications Commission has urged the Eighth Circuit to toss multiple industry challenges to its rules against discrimination in broadband deployment, saying its use of a wide-reaching standard for prohibited bias fits the law's requirements.

  • June 25, 2024

    $3M Broker Commission Deal Stayed To Await NAR Settlement

    A Massachusetts federal court will not consider a $3 million settlement reached between home sellers and a multiple listing service over broker commission rules until after a decision on a much larger settlement in the separate sprawling case against the National Association of Realtors.

  • June 25, 2024

    FTC Looks To Ax MGM Suit Over Cybersecurity Probe

    The Federal Trade Commission rebuffed claims from MGM Resorts International that the agency improperly declined to recuse chair Lina Khan from investigating the hospitality giant's data security practices, urging a D.C. federal judge to toss MGM's lawsuit that seeks to stop the probe.

  • June 25, 2024

    EU Opens Microsoft Case, Unappeased By Teams Unbundling

    European Union antitrust authorities opened a formal complaint against Microsoft on Tuesday over the company's bundling of its Teams communications program with its Office 365 suites, calling out as insufficient the disconnection of the services Microsoft initiated last year to appease enforcers.

  • June 25, 2024

    Lye Buyers Can't Get Court OK For $38.5M Antitrust Deals

    A federal judge in Buffalo has rejected three settlements totaling $38.5 million for a proposed class of lye purchasers who alleged producers of the chemical colluded to inflate prices, ruling exceptions to who qualifies for the class make it impossible to determine membership.

  • June 25, 2024

    Int'l Paper Gets US Clearance On $7.2B DS Smith Buy

    International Paper Co. and its U.K. competitor DS Smith PLC said Tuesday that the waiting period for U.S. antitrust authorities to try and block their planned roughly $7.2 billion merger has expired. 

  • June 25, 2024

    House Republicans Look To Cut Justice Department Funding

    House Republicans are looking to slash funding for the U.S. Department of Justice for fiscal 2025, a move that comes as Republicans have been attacking the department for what they deem unfair prosecutions of former President Donald Trump.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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."

  • 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.

  • 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.

Expert Analysis

  • EU Inquiry Offers First Insight Into Foreign Subsidy Law

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    The European Commission's first in-depth investigation under the Foreign Subsidies Regulation into a public procurement process, and subsequent brief on regulatory trends, sheds light on the commission's approach to such cases, as well as jurisdictional, procedural and substantive issues under the regulation, says Matthew Hall at McGuireWoods.

  • Opinion

    PACCAR Should Be 1st Step To Regulating Litigation Funders

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    Rather than reversing the U.K. Supreme Court's well-reasoned judgment in PACCAR v. Competition Appeal Tribunal, imposing a regulatory regime on litigation funders in parity with that of lawyers, legislators should build upon it to create a more transparent, competitive and fairer funding industry, says Rosa Curling at Foxglove.

  • What The NIL Negotiation Rules Injunction Means For NCAA

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    A Tennessee federal court's recent preliminary injunction reverses several prominent and well-established NCAA rules on negotiations with student-athletes over name, image and likeness compensation and shows that collegiate athletics is a profoundly unsettled legal environment, say attorneys at Pillsbury.

  • Md. May See Vigorous Resale Price Maintenance Enforcement

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    In Maryland, indications of a new focus on resale price maintenance agreements are significant because state prosecution in this area has been rare, particularly outside California, say attorneys at DLA Piper.

  • What 2 Years Of Ukraine-Russia Conflict Can Teach Cos.

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    A few key legal lessons for the global business community since Russia's invasion of Ukraine could help protect global commerce in times of future conflict, including how to respond to disparate trade restrictions and sanctions, navigate war-related contract disputes, and protect against heightened cybersecurity risks, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • Antitrust Enforcers' Views On Info Exchanges Are Evolving

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    As antitrust enforcers' views on information exchanges between competing companies have matured in response to technological advances, companies would do well to reconsider whether the exchanges in which they participate meet the most recent compliance benchmarks, say attorneys at Norton Rose.

  • What Recent Study Shows About AI's Promise For Legal Tasks

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    Amid both skepticism and excitement about the promise of generative artificial intelligence in legal contexts, the first randomized controlled trial studying its impact on basic lawyering tasks shows mixed but promising results, and underscores the need for attorneys to proactively engage with AI, says Daniel Schwarcz at University of Minnesota Law School.

  • The Epic Antitrust Cases And Challenges Of Injunctive Relief

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    The Epic cases against Apple and Google offer a window into the courts' considerable challenges in Big Tech litigation and establishing injunctive relief that enhances competition and benefits consumers, say Kelly Lear Nordby and Jon Tomlin at Ankura Consulting.

  • Decline In Same-Industry M&A Tells A Nuanced Policy Story

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    In light of newly available Hart-Scott-Rodino Act data suggesting that intraindustry mergers are down overall and pharmaceutical and hospital intraindustry transactions tend to face greater antitrust scrutiny than in the past, attorneys at Morgan Lewis explore whether Biden administration enforcement policies may be curbing pro-competitive strategic M&A.

  • Behind The 'CVR Spin' Method Of Unlocking Assets In M&A

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    The spinoff of contingent value rights, or the CVR spin, can unlock secondary and noncore assets in public mergers and acquisitions, while resolving the market dislocation of some traditional divestitures, say attorneys at Gibson Dunn.

  • Opinion

    European Union Criticisms Of The FCPA Are Misguided

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    Some in the European Union have criticized U.S. enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act for what they perceive as jurisdictional overreach, but this appears to overlook the crucial fact that jurisdiction is voluntary, and critics should focus instead on the lack of equivalent laws in their own region, say John Joy and YuTong Wang at FTI Law.

  • 5 Models For Structuring Health Provider-Payor Partnerships

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    With recent data showing that the U.S. continues to spend more and get less for healthcare services compared to other industrialized nations, providers and payors should consider a variety of partnership structures that can help achieve the so-called triple aim of improving the health of individuals and populations while reducing per capita costs, says John Howard at Thompson Coburn.

  • Litigation Inspiration: A Source Of Untapped Fulfillment

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    As increasing numbers of attorneys struggle with stress and mental health issues, business litigators can find protection against burnout by remembering their important role in society — because fulfillment in one’s work isn’t just reserved for public interest lawyers, say Bennett Rawicki and Peter Bigelow at Hilgers Graben.

  • Understanding Insurance Is Key To Limiting Antitrust Liability

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    As regulators signal their intent to continue last year's aggressive campaign of corporate antitrust litigation, businesses must make active management of their liability insurance policies, along with a firm knowledge of the limits of their coverage, central to their strategies for limiting the enormous financial risks of enforcement, say attorneys at Nossaman.

  • What FTC's 'Killer Acquisition' Theory Means For Pharma Cos.

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    The Federal Trade Commission's recent lawsuit to block Sanofi's acquisition of a pharmaceutical treatment developed by Maze Therapeutics builds on previous enforcement actions and could indicate the agency's growing willingness to use its so-called killer acquisition theory against perceived attempts to eliminate nascent competition, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

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