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Competition
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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.
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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.
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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.
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September 03, 2024
R.J. Reynolds Stresses Reason To End $95M Royalties To Altria
Tobacco giant R.J. Reynolds is pushing hard on a bid to end $95 million in royalty payments it owes to the parent company of Philip Morris after a patent infringement verdict, emphasizing to a North Carolina federal court that its deal with Juul to license vape pen technology can in fact be enforced retroactively.
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September 03, 2024
Alphabet Beats Investor Suit Over Antitrust Issues, For Now
A California federal judge on Tuesday tossed a proposed securities fraud class action against Google and its parent company Alphabet Inc., saying investors failed to adequately allege that Google intended to deceive them when responding to a congressional query on concerns of anti-competitive ad tech practices.
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September 03, 2024
Ivy Leaguers Withdraw Opposition To NCAA's $2B NIL Deal
Two Brown University athletes have withdrawn their opposition to the NCAA's proposed $2.78 billion name, image and likeness settlement, telling a federal judge in California on Tuesday that they've been assured it will not impact their own antitrust case against several Ivy League schools.
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September 03, 2024
Colo. Panel Doubts Jury Instruction Can Upend $1.8M Award
Colorado appellate judges appeared skeptical Tuesday that a state trial court was responsible for what an investor described as poor jury instructions that resulted in a nearly $1.85 million civil theft judgment, which he insisted was far too high, with one judge asking why the investor didn't sue his trial counsel over the supposed error.
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September 03, 2024
FCC Moves Ahead On Indie Video Competition, Congress Told
The Federal Communications Commission could soon advance new rules that would make it easier for independent video programmers to gain a foothold in the market, the FCC's chief has told a key Democratic senator on communications policy.
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September 03, 2024
Teva Patents Don't Belong In Orange Book, Fed. Circ. Told
Amneal Pharmaceuticals Inc. is urging the Federal Circuit to preserve a lower court decision ejecting inhaler device patents from an important government database, arguing that the delisting, won in an infringement lawsuit from Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc., properly separated out device patents from drug patents.
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September 03, 2024
Aesthetic Laser Co. Tells Jury Of Rival's 'Corporate Raid'
Medical aesthetic business Cynosure told a Boston federal jury Tuesday that two former employees and an industry rival launched a "calculated corporate raid" by poaching dozens of sales and marketing personnel, violating a host of noncompete and non-solicitation agreements while the departing workers pocketed trade secrets on their way out the door.
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September 03, 2024
Gov't Backs 9th Circ. Bid To Revive Invisalign Monopoly Case
The U.S. Department of Justice has told the Ninth Circuit that a lower court applied the wrong standard when tossing a pair of class actions accusing the maker of Invisalign of monopolizing markets for clear dental aligners and teeth scanners.
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September 03, 2024
Alaska Says Nothing's Changed As Flyers Try Merger 'Do-Over'
Alaska Airlines wants a nixed flyer challenge to its $1.9 billion purchase of Hawaiian Airlines to stay nixed, telling a Hawaii federal judge that declarations from the plaintiffs about their travel plans could have been submitted months ago and are "too little, too late" to overcome the judge's ruling that they had no standing.
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September 03, 2024
Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court
Last week in Delaware's court of equity, an iconic rock band got a new member, former President Donald Trump's social media company escaped a contempt ruling, and litigation grew over Illumina Inc.'s $8 billion reacquisition of cancer-testing company Grail Inc. New cases touched on intellectual property, mergers, share transfers and dump trucks. In case you missed it, here's the latest from Delaware's Court of Chancery.
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September 03, 2024
NFL Sunday Ticket Subscribers Appeal $4.7B Verdict Reversal
The subscribers to the NFL's Sunday Ticket broadcast package whose $4.7 billion class action jury award was thrown out and antitrust claims erased by a federal judge last month are appealing the rulings to the Ninth Circuit.
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September 03, 2024
CMA Clears Tate & Lyle Sugar Biz Deal
Britain's competition authority said Tuesday it has now cleared Tate & Lyle's planned purchase of sugar producer Tereos' U.K. business, as the unit was at risk of shutting down without the deal, which would lead to reduced competition in the industry anyway.
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September 03, 2024
EU Wrong To Probe Illumina's $8B Grail Deal, Top Court Says
Europe's highest court said Tuesday that the European Commission had no authority to investigate Illumina's $8 billion acquisition of cancer detection company Grail and unwind the deal, as it delivered a blow to the bloc's merger control powers.
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September 02, 2024
Microsoft To Face UK Class Action Over License Pricing
Microsoft is set to face a multibillion-pound class action case brought by a former U.K. prosecutor over allegations that the tech giant illegally inflated the prices of software licenses, lawyers who plan to represent consumers said on Monday.
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August 30, 2024
Concrete Co. Owner Gets 5-Month Sentence For Bid-Rigging
The owner of Evans Concrete LLC, Timothy "Bo" Strickland, was handed a five-month prison sentence, followed by three years of supervised release after pleading guilty to participating in a coastal Georgia concrete bid-rigging and price-fixing scheme.
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August 30, 2024
Steel Distributor Exec Pleads Guilty To Price-Fixing
A second steel distributor executive pled guilty Friday in Puerto Rico to criminal charges for allegedly participating in an eight-year-long scheme to fix the prices of steel products, including while the island was recovering from a pair of hurricanes.
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August 30, 2024
UK Drops Antitrust Probe Into School Software Co.
A United Kingdom school software company is no longer facing antitrust scrutiny over alleged litigation threats against schools looking to switch providers, but the firm continues to suggest that it may take action against the "misuse of its intellectual property" that it says complaints to authorities were meant to hide.
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August 30, 2024
Wheeling & Appealing: The Latest Must-Know Appellate Action
Appeals courts have awakened from summertime slumber and crammed their early autumn calendars with arguments of national significance, which Law360 previews in this edition of Wheeling & Appealing. We're also recapping August's top appellate decisions, exploring new polling about U.S. Supreme Court opinions and testing your knowledge of Fifth Circuit history.
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August 30, 2024
Align Tech Cuts $27.5M Antitrust Deal With 1.45M Consumers
A proposed class of nearly 1.45 million SmileDirectClub teeth-aligner buyers urged a California federal judge Thursday to preliminarily sign off on Align Technologies Inc.'s $27.5 million cash and coupon settlement to resolve antitrust claims alleging the company colluded with the now-bankrupt SmileDirecClub to illegally restrict competition.
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August 30, 2024
Semiconductor Co. Beats Investor Suit Over Failed $8B Merger
A California federal judge has dismissed a proposed investor class action filed over semiconductor company MaxLinear Inc.'s decision to cancel a planned $8 billion merger with Silicon Motion Technology Corp., finding investors' claims against the former can't stand because they held shares in the latter.
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August 30, 2024
RTX Corp. To Settle Engineers' No-Poach Class Claims
RTX Corp. on Friday announced a nascent class action settlement in a lawsuit accusing its Pratt & Whitney division of orchestrating an agreement among five aerospace engineering suppliers not to hire one another's employees, a move that follows a $26.5 million settlement between the employees and the five other firms.
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August 30, 2024
Judge Unsure Warehouse Antitrust Suit Belongs In Fed. Court
An Illinois federal judge appeared skeptical Friday that a warehouse developer could unravel a municipal contract with several real estate companies accused of violating antitrust laws, questioning if the plaintiff was truly harmed by the deal or a related judgment its rivals later won in state court.
Expert Analysis
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Jarkesy May Thwart Consumer Agencies' Civil Penalty Power
The U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jarkesy not only implicates future SEC administrative adjudications, but those of other agencies that operate similarly — and may stymie regulators' efforts to levy civil monetary penalties in a range of consumer protection enforcement actions, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.
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Mirror, Mirror On The Wall, Is My Counterclaim Bound To Fall?
A Pennsylvania federal court’s recent dismissal of the defendants’ counterclaims in Morgan v. Noss should remind attorneys to avoid the temptation to repackage a claim’s facts and law into a mirror-image counterclaim, as this approach will often result in a waste of time and resources, says Matthew Selmasska at Kaufman Dolowich.
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Bank M&A Continues To Lag Amid Regulatory Ambiguity
Bank M&A activity in the first half of 2024 continued to be lower than in prior years, as the industry is recovering from the 2023 bank failures, and regulatory and macroeconomic conditions have not otherwise been prime for deals, say Robert Azarow and Amber Hay at Arnold & Porter.
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FTC's Drug Middlemen Probe Highlights Ongoing Scrutiny
The Federal Trade Commission's interim staff report on its inquiry into pharmacy benefit managers suggests that the industry will remain under an enforcement microscope for the foreseeable future due to concerns about how PBMs affect drug costs and accessibility, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.
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Series
Playing Dungeons & Dragons Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Playing Dungeons & Dragons – a tabletop role-playing game – helped pave the way for my legal career by providing me with foundational skills such as persuasion and team building, says Derrick Carman at Robins Kaplan.
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Considerations When Using Publicly Available Data To Train AI
To maximize the benefits and mitigate the risks of using publicly available data to train artificial intelligence models, companies should maintain a balance between openness and protection, and consider certain best practices, says Michael Cole at Mercedes-Benz Research & Development North America.
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Parsing NJ Court's Rationale For Denying Lipitor Class Cert.
A New Jersey federal court's recent Lipitor rulings granting summary judgment and denying motions for class certification for two plaintiff classes offer insight into the level of rigorous analysis required by both parties and their experts to satisfy the requirements of class certification, says Catia Twal at Edgeworth Economics.
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Unpacking The Latest FTC Guidance On Multilevel Marketing
Branko Jovanovic and Monica Zhong at Edgeworth Economics discuss the Federal Trade Commission's recent advice for multilevel marketers on how MLMs should approach their income and earnings reports, including participants costs, typical proceeds and distributor gains.
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3 Leadership Practices For A More Supportive Firm Culture
Traditional leadership styles frequently amplify the inherent pressures of legal work, but a few simple, time-neutral strategies can strengthen the skills and confidence of employees and foster a more collaborative culture, while supporting individual growth and contribution to organizational goals, says Benjamin Grimes at BKG Leadership.
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E-Discovery Quarterly: Rulings On Hyperlinked Documents
Recent rulings show that counsel should engage in early discussions with clients regarding the potential of hyperlinked documents in electronically stored information, which will allow for more deliberate negotiation of any agreements regarding the scope of discovery, say attorneys at Sidley.
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Loper Bright Limits Federal Agencies' Ability To Alter Course
The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision to dismantle Chevron deference also effectively overrules its 2005 decision in National Cable & Telecommunications Association v. Brand X, greatly diminishing agencies' ability to change regulatory course from one administration to the next, says Steven Gordon at Holland & Knight.
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Calif. Out-Of-State Noncompete Ban Faces Several Hurdles
California's attempt to bolster its noncompete law has encountered significant procedural and constitutional challenges, and litigating parties must carefully analyze not only the restrictive covenants contained in their agreements, but also the forum-selection and choice-of-law provisions, say Jennifer Redmond and Gal Gressel at Sheppard Mullin.
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Series
Teaching Scuba Diving Makes Me A Better Lawyer
As a master scuba instructor, I’ve learned how to prepare for the unexpected, overcome fears and practice patience, and each of these skills – among the many others I’ve developed – has profoundly enhanced my work as a lawyer, says Ron Raether at Troutman Pepper.
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Lawyers Can Take Action To Honor The Voting Rights Act
As the Voting Rights Act reaches its 59th anniversary Tuesday, it must urgently be reinforced against recent efforts to dismantle voter protections, and lawyers can pitch in immediately by volunteering and taking on pro bono work to directly help safeguard the right to vote, says Anna Chu at We The Action.
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Proposed NIL Deal Leaves NCAA Antitrust Liability Door Open
The proposed House v. NCAA settlement filed in California federal court creates the possibility of significant direct payments to student-athletes for the first time, but the resulting framework is unlikely to withstand future antitrust scrutiny because it still represents an agreement among competitors to limit labor cost, says Yaman Desai at Lynn Pinker.