Competition

  • September 05, 2024

    CFPB Flags Rental Price-Fixing As Among FDCPA Concerns

    In a Sept. 5 report to Congress, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said rent-setting algorithms of the sort used by RealPage could amount to price-fixing, making efforts to collect on inflated rental debt a violation of federal law.

  • September 05, 2024

    Shoemaker Can't Avoid Birkenstock's Copycat Suit

    A Massachusetts-based shoemaker and its manufacturer must face almost every intellectual property claim brought against it by Birkenstock after a federal judge declined to dismiss all but one claim in the popular brand's suit alleging design patent, trademark and trade dress infringement.

  • September 05, 2024

    DOJ And Google Set For Trial, Again, This Time Over Ad Tech

    The U.S. Department of Justice is up Monday for its second high-stakes trial against Google in a year, going after the alleged monopolization of key digital advertising technology in Virginia federal court.

  • September 05, 2024

    Flyers Denied $34M Fee For JetBlue, Spirit Deal Challenge

    Airline passengers who launched an antitrust lawsuit over JetBlue's since-scrapped plan to merge with Spirit won't recoup any of the $34 million in legal fees they urged a Massachusetts federal court to award because the travelers can't be considered to have won on their claims, a federal judge in Boston said Thursday.

  • September 05, 2024

    Ill. Judge Exits Home Sellers' Broker Fees Antitrust Suit

    An Illinois federal judge has recused herself from a certified and settled class action that accused the National Association of Realtors and multiple major brokerages of conspiring to charge artificially inflated broker commissions for home sellers.

  • September 05, 2024

    Veteran Biz Lawyer Set To Mediate NCAA Prize Money Fight

    The National Collegiate Athletic Association and University of North Carolina tennis player Reese Brantmeier have jointly agreed to have veteran Tarheel State business litigator Ray Owens mediate their dispute over the organization's limits on athletes receiving prize money from outside competitions.

  • September 05, 2024

    Ticketmaster Faces UK Probe Over Oasis Tour Sales

    The competition watchdog said Thursday it has launched an investigation into Ticketmaster over concerns that it duped fans of Oasis into paying higher prices for their tickets to the rock band's scheduled reunion concerts using so-called dynamic pricing.

  • September 05, 2024

    UK Probes Acerinox's $800M Bid For Haynes International

    Britain's antitrust authority said Thursday that it has launched a formal investigation into the planned $798 million takeover by stainless steel manufacturer Acerinox of Haynes International, which makes alloys, to assess whether the deal would weaken domestic competition.

  • September 04, 2024

    Albertsons CEO Takes Stand On Kroger Merger, Missing Texts

    Federal Trade Commision attorneys on Wednesday pressed Albertsons Cos. Inc. CEO Vivek Sankaran in Oregon federal court about why he had such dire predictions about the company's future without a merger with Kroger despite previous statements about how his company had been crushing the competition.

  • September 04, 2024

    Nonsolicits Don't Need Geographic Terms, Ga. Justices Say

    The Supreme Court of Georgia said on Wednesday that restrictive covenants don't need to contain an explicit territorial component for them to be deemed reasonable under state law, reviving a marketing organization's attempt to enforce a nonsolicitation provision in its contracts with independent agents.

  • September 04, 2024

    Cheer Parents Request $35M In Fees, Costs For Antitrust Deal

    Three moms that reached an $82.5 million settlement with Varsity Brands in litigation claiming the cheerleading giant stifled competition and raised participation costs asked a Tennessee federal court Wednesday for $35 million of that fund to pay their attorneys' fees and costs.

  • September 04, 2024

    Towns Say Settlement Doesn't Limit Rail Merger Appeal

    A coalition of Illinois towns challenging the approval of Canadian Pacific's $31 billion merger with Kansas City Southern told the D.C. Circuit the federal government is trying to use a settlement struck by Chicago's commuter rail system to limit the issues in the case.

  • September 04, 2024

    Market Realities On, Merger Reviews Off Table In Ad Tech Trial

    A Virginia federal judge put slight limits Wednesday on the evidence the U.S. Justice Department and Google LLC can present in next week's advertising technology monopolization suit, allowing Google to push its own views of the market but limiting its ability to bring up past merger reviews.

  • September 04, 2024

    NC Biz Court Bulletin: Blackbeard IP Fight, Firm Data Breach

    As summer winds down, the North Carolina Business Court tackled usage rights pertaining to footage and artifacts from Blackbeard's shipwreck while grappling with uncovering the details of a cyberattack that exposed the data of Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft LLP. In case you missed those and others, here are the highlights.

  • September 04, 2024

    OpenAI Wants News Org.'s Copyright Suit Cut To Core Issue

    OpenAI has asked a New York federal judge to dismiss multiple claims from a copyright suit brought against it and Microsoft Corp. by the Center for Investigative Reporting Inc., arguing the case should be pared down to the "core issue" of how the fair use doctrine applies to artificial intelligence training.

  • September 04, 2024

    Glenmark Will Pay $25M To End Feds' Price-Fixing Suit

    Glenmark Pharmaceuticals USA will pay $25 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by conspiring to fix the price of a generic high cholesterol drug, federal prosecutors announced Wednesday.

  • September 04, 2024

    NJ Health System Wins Access To Fraud File In Antitrust Fight

    A New Jersey federal judge Wednesday allowed health system RWJBarnabas Health Inc. to move ahead with a subpoena on the New Jersey State Commission of Investigation in a case in which RWJBarnabas is accused of antitrust violations by rival health system CarePoint Health Management Associates LLC.

  • September 04, 2024

    PVC Pipe Makers Accused Of Price-Fixing

    A Tennessee farmer has hit the country's biggest PVC pipe manufacturers with a proposed price-fixing class action, claiming that since at least 2021 they've been colluding through a reporting agency to raise prices for consumers.

  • September 04, 2024

    Weil Adds Longtime FTC Mergers Assistant Director In DC

    An almost 19-year veteran of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission who helped lead a group of attorneys focused on mergers has moved to private practice, joining Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP as an antitrust partner in the nation's capital, the firm announced Wednesday.

  • September 11, 2024

    Hausfeld Snaps Up Litigation Pro From Covington In London

    Hausfeld LLP has hired a partner from Covington & Burling LLP in London to boost its profile in commercial disputes, after its office in the U.K. capital recently underwent changes in leadership.

  • September 04, 2024

    US Steel, Nippon Defend Deal After VP Harris Voices Concern

    U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel on Wednesday reiterated the value they see in their planned $14.9 billion merger, despite opposition voiced by Vice President Kamala Harris, President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.

  • September 04, 2024

    Microsoft Hiring Of Inflection AI Team Too Small To Worry UK

    The U.K.'s antitrust regulator said Wednesday it has ended its probe into Microsoft's hiring of Inflection AI staff, finding the U.S. machine learning specialist's operation was too small to trigger competition concerns.

  • September 04, 2024

    EU Scrambles To Close Competition Gap After Illumina Ruling

    The Europe Union's highest court has left the bloc's antitrust authorities struggling to find a way to close an enforcement gap that could make it easier for dominant companies to neutralize startups with its decision that the European Commission had no authority to probe Illumina’s $8 billion acquisition of Grail.

  • September 03, 2024

    Louisiana Frees Aurobindo, Sandoz From Price-Fixing Suits

    The state of Louisiana has dropped its remaining claims in three Connecticut-based lawsuits by a collection of state attorneys general against more than three dozen pharmaceutical companies alleging a generic drug price-fixing scheme, truncating assertions that accuse myriad drugmakers of Sherman Act violations.

  • September 03, 2024

    Energy Leasholders' RICO, Antitrust Suit Tossed After 9 Years

    A Pennsylvania federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit filed by oil and gas leaseholders seeking $5 billion in damages for antitrust and racketeering violations, finding that the leaseholders lacked standing or hadn't adequately made their case for any of the suit.

Expert Analysis

  • FTC Noncompete Rule's Impact On Healthcare Nonprofits

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    Healthcare entities that are nonprofit or tax-exempt and thus outside of the pending Federal Trade Commission noncompete rule's reach should evaluate a number of potential risk factors and impacts, starting by assessing their own status, say Ben Shook and Tania Archer at Moore & Van Allen.

  • Series

    Teaching Yoga Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Being a yoga instructor has helped me develop my confidence and authenticity, as well as stress management and people skills — all of which have crossed over into my career as an attorney, says Laura Gongaware at Clyde & Co.

  • Clarity Is Central Theme In FCA's Greenwashing Guidance

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    Recent Financial Conduct Authority guidance for complying with the U.K. regulator's anti-greenwashing rule sends an overarching message that sustainability claims must be clear, accurate and capable of being substantiated, say lawyers at Cadwalader.

  • A Vision For Economic Clerkships In The Legal System

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    As courts handle increasingly complex damages analyses involving vast amounts of data, an economic clerkship program — integrating early-career economists into the judicial system — could improve legal outcomes and provide essential training to clerks, say Mona Birjandi at Data for Decisions and Matt Farber at Secretariat.

  • Protecting IP May Be Tricky Without Noncompetes

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    Contrary to the Federal Trade Commission's view, trade secret law cannot replace noncompetes' protection of proprietary information because intellectual property includes far more than just trade secrets, so businesses need to closely examine their IP protection options, say Aimee Fagan and Ching-Lee Fukuda at Sidley.

  • How FTC's Noncompete Rule May Affect Exec Comp Packages

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    In the event the Federal Trade Commission's final noncompete rule goes into effect as currently contemplated, companies will need to take stock of how they structure post-employment executive compensation arrangements, such as severance agreements and clawbacks, says Meredith O'Leary at King & Spalding.

  • Key Antitrust Class Certification Questions Remain Unclear

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    The U.S. Supreme Court, by recently rejecting certiorari in Visa v. National ATM, turned down the opportunity to clarify how to analyze disputed evidence bearing on the certification of antitrust class actions, leaving the applicable standards unclear instead of resolving this split of authority, says Jonathan Berman at Jones Day.

  • E-Discovery Quarterly: Recent Rulings On Text Message Data

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    Electronically stored information on cellphones, and in particular text messages, can present unique litigation challenges, and recent court decisions demonstrate that counsel must carefully balance what data should be preserved, collected, reviewed and produced, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • Installing Antitrust Firewalls For AI And Other Innovations

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    Amid the specter of increased regulatory focus, implementing a firewall policy can help minimize antitrust risks related to the improper use or sharing of competitively sensitive information, including AI and algorithms, say attorneys at Hogan Lovells.

  • Fostering Employee Retention Amid Shaky DEI Landscape

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    Ongoing challenges to the legality of corporate diversity, equity and inclusion programs are complicating efforts to use DEI as an employee retention tool, but with the right strategic approach employers can continue to recruit and retain diverse talent — even after the FTC’s ban on noncompetes, says Ally Coll at the Purple Method.

  • PE In The Crosshairs Of Public And Private Antitrust Enforcers

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    A series of decisions from a California federal court in the recently settled Packaged Seafood Products Antitrust Litigation, as well as heightened scrutiny from federal agencies, serve as a reminder that private equity firms may be exposed to liability for alleged anti-competitive conduct by their portfolio companies, say attorneys at Axinn.

  • Series

    Swimming Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Years of participation in swimming events, especially in the open water, have proven to be ideal preparation for appellate arguments in court — just as you must put your trust in the ocean when competing in a swim event, you must do the same with the judicial process, says John Kulewicz at Vorys.

  • FTC Noncompete Rule May Still Face Historical Hurdles

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    The Federal Trade Commission's final rule banning noncompetes might face challenges that could have been avoided with more cautious consideration of the commission's long history of failed lawsuits that went beyond the agency's statutory authority, as well as the mountain of judicial precedent justifying noncompete agreements in employment contracts, say attorneys at BakerHostetler.

  • Manufacturers Should Pay Attention To 'Right-To-Repair' Laws

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    Oregon’s recently passed "right-to-repair" statute highlights that the R2R movement is not going away, and that manufacturers of all kinds need to be paying attention to the evolving list of R2R statutes in various states and consider participating in the process, says Courtney Sarnow at Culhane.

  • New Federal Bill Would Drastically Alter Privacy Landscape

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    While the recently introduced American Privacy Rights Act would eliminate the burdensome patchwork of state regulations, the proposed federal privacy law would also significantly expand compliance obligations and liability exposure for companies, especially those that rely on artificial intelligence or biometric technologies, says David Oberly at Baker Donelson.

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