Competition

  • 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.

  • June 24, 2024

    Judge Recommends Tossing VW Supplier's Antitrust Case

    A magistrate judge has recommended that a Texas federal court toss a suit accusing Volkswagen of maintaining an illegal stranglehold over its suppliers after the Fifth Circuit told the court to consider if the dispute should be litigated in Germany instead of the U.S.

  • June 24, 2024

    Apple, Amazon Assail Hagens Berman's Class Rep 'Charade'

    Apple and Amazon.com blasted Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP for trying to "have it both ways" in an antitrust suit over a pact between the companies restricting Amazon iPhone and iPad sales to approved vendors, arguing the firm cannot withdraw its original named plaintiff without forcing him to testify.

  • June 24, 2024

    Illinois, Other States Back FTC Bid To Affirm Intuit Ad Ruling

    Illinois, along with 20 other states and the District of Columbia, defended the Federal Trade Commission in tax software giant Intuit's Fifth Circuit constitutional challenge to the agency's findings that the company engaged in deceptive advertising, saying in an amicus brief that the FTC's conclusion was correct.

  • June 24, 2024

    NC Life Insurer Slaps Ex-Agents With Poaching Suit

    North Carolina-based life insurance company Equis Financial LLC accused nine former independent contractors who sold policies for the insurer of breaching their employment agreements when they left to work for a rival insurance marketing company.

  • June 24, 2024

    Broadband Advocates Urge FCC To Revisit Subsidy Fees

    Advocates for broadband expansion are asking the Federal Communications Commission to revisit an April decision that exempted internet service providers, at least for now, from contributions to the FCC's telecom subsidy program.

  • June 24, 2024

    Australian, Canadian Uranium Miners Ink $835M Combo Deal

    Australian mining company Paladin Energy Ltd. has agreed to buy Canada's Fission Uranium Corp. for CA$1.14 billion ($835 million), the companies said in a Monday statement. 

Expert Analysis

  • How High Court SEC Case Could Affect The ITC

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    While the U.S. Supreme Court’s upcoming ruling in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jarkesy will likely spare the U.S. International Trade Commission from major operative changes, the ITC’s ability to issue penalties for violations of its orders may change, say Gwendolyn Tawresey and Ryan Deck at Troutman Pepper.

  • HR Antitrust Compliance Crucial Amid DOJ Scrutiny

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    The Justice Department's Antitrust Division recently announced a required human resources component for antitrust compliance programs, which means companies should evaluate their policies to prevent, detect and remediate potential violations as they add training for HR professionals, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • Mass Arb. Rule Changes May Be A Hindrance For Consumers

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    The American Arbitration Association's recent changes to its mass arbitration supplementary rules and fee schedule, including a shift from filing fees to initiation and per-case fees, may reduce consumers' ability to counteract businesses' mandatory arbitration agreements, say Eduard Korsinsky and Alexander Krot at Levi & Korsinsky.

  • ChristianaCare Settlement Reveals FCA Pitfalls For Hospitals

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    ChristianaCare's False Claims Act settlement in December is the first one based on a hospital allegedly providing private physicians with free services in the form of hospital-employed clinicians and provides important compliance lessons as the government ramps up scrutiny of compensation arrangements, say attorneys at Sheppard Mullin.

  • Series

    Coaching High School Wrestling Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Coaching my son’s high school wrestling team has been great fun, but it’s also demonstrated how a legal career can benefit from certain experiences, such as embracing the unknown, studying the rules and engaging with new people, says Richard Davis at Maynard Nexsen.

  • SG's Office Is Case Study To Help Close Legal Gender Gap

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    As women continue to be underrepresented in the upper echelons of the legal profession, law firms could learn from the example set by the Office of the Solicitor General, where culture and workplace policies have helped foster greater gender equality, say attorneys at Ocean Tomo.

  • The Latest Antitrust Areas For In-House Counsel To Watch

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    The U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission's increasingly aggressive approach to antitrust enforcement means in-house counsel should closely monitor five key compliance issues, say attorneys at Squire Patton.

  • NCAA's Antitrust Litigation History Offers Clues For NIL Case

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    Attorneys at Perkins Coie analyze the NCAA's long history of antitrust litigation to predict how state attorney general claims against NCAA recruiting rules surrounding name, image and likeness discussions will stand up in Tennessee federal court.

  • Opinion

    Proposed Rule Could Impair MDL Flexibility, Harm Plaintiffs

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    While proposed Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 16.1 is intended to enhance the management of multidistrict litigation proceedings, its one-size-fits-all requirements could stifle the flexibility that judges need to address the varying circumstances of MDLs effectively, and jeopardize plaintiffs' ability to pursue justice, say Christopher Seeger and Jennifer Scullion at Seeger Weiss.

  • Litigation Funding Implications Amid Post-PACCAR Disputes

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    An English tribunal's recent decision in Neill v. Sony, allowing an appeal on the enforceability of a litigation funding agreement, highlights how the legislative developments on funding limits following the U.K. Supreme Court's 2023 decision in Paccar v. Competition Appeal Tribunal may affect practitioners, say Andrew Leitch and Anoma Rekhi at BCLP.

  • Healthcare Collabs Can Alleviate Labor, Antitrust Challenges

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    Two major challenges facing hospitals and health systems include labor shortages and increased antitrust scrutiny at both federal and state levels, but collaborative efforts may help with addressing these difficulties, says Sumaya Noush at McDermott.

  • FTC AI Inquiry Signals Intensified Focus On Emerging Tech

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    The Federal Trade Commission's recent inquiry into investments and partnerships between Big Tech companies and artificial intelligence startups appears to be directed at guiding future enforcement decisions in competition, privacy and consumer protection — and three principles discussed at a related tech summit give insight on the agency's approach, say attorneys at Skadden.

  • Reimagining Law Firm Culture To Break The Cycle Of Burnout

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    While attorney burnout remains a perennial issue in the legal profession, shifting post-pandemic expectations mean that law firms must adapt their office cultures to retain talent, say Kevin Henderson and Eric Pacifici at SMB Law Group.

  • Assessing Merger Guideline Feedback With Machine Learning

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    Large language modeling appears to show that public sentiment matches agency intent around the new merger control guidelines from the Federal Trade Commission and U.S. Justice Department, says Andrew Sfekas at Cornerstone Research.

  • Series

    Competing In Dressage Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    My lifelong participation in the sport of dressage — often called ballet on horses — has proven that several skills developed through training and competition are transferable to legal work, especially the ability to harness focus, persistence and versatility when negotiating a deal, says Stephanie Coco at V&E.

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