Competition

  • July 25, 2024

    Kroger, Albertsons Agree To Delay $25B Merger Closing

    Kroger Co. and Albertsons said Thursday they agreed to delay closing on their $25 billion merger until after a judge rules on the merits of Colorado regulators' antitrust case, allowing the companies to avoid a two-week hearing next month.

  • July 25, 2024

    4 Banks Ordered To Comply With UK Retail Competition Rules

    HSBC, Lloyds, TSB and Allied Irish Banks have broken rules designed to help customers find the best deals, Britain's antitrust authority said Thursday, adding that it has ordered the lenders to comply with competition regulation. 

  • July 24, 2024

    FTC Chair Wary AI Tools Can Be Used For Corporate Collusion

    Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan weighed in on a host of topics during a discussion Wednesday at the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference, expressing concerns about the agency's high legal bills for expert witnesses and describing AI price-setting tools as a potential loophole for collusion.

  • July 24, 2024

    Even With Deal, Athletes Still Fighting For Share Of NCAA Pie

    College athletes suing for a cut of NCAA television revenue in Colorado federal court have stressed that they will continue to litigate even if the settlement of a massive class action over name, image and likeness rights in California receives court approval.

  • July 24, 2024

    Clinic Drops Case Against Maker Of Body-Sculpting Devices

    BTL Industries Inc., a Massachusetts company that sells body-sculpting equipment, and a Connecticut aesthetic clinic have mutually agreed to dismiss a lawsuit accusing the Bay State company of using misleading profit projections and illegal trade restraints that unfairly penalized equipment buyers and caused hefty investments to wither.

  • July 24, 2024

    DOJ Says NY Judge Muffed Standing In DirecTV Price-Fix Case

    Paying inflated prices isn't the only way someone can be injured by price-fixing, and a New York federal court was wrong to rule that it was in a case brought by DirecTV over retransmission fees, the U.S. Department of Justice has told the Second Circuit.

  • July 24, 2024

    Packaging Co. Can't Limit Rival's Sales In NC Biz Spat

    The North Carolina Business Court on Wednesday refused to limit the clientele of a packaging company facing sales-poaching claims by a competitor, reasoning that the rival's lawsuit isn't likely to succeed.

  • July 24, 2024

    Judge Sets Up 2-Tier Counsel Access In DOJ Live Nation Suit

    A New York federal judge on Tuesday set up a two-tiered system for document access in the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation and Ticketmaster, limiting sensitive information from other market participants from Live Nation in-house counsel.

  • July 24, 2024

    Meme Stock Investor Opposes Robinhood Settlement For Now

    A meme stock investor on Wednesday urged a Florida federal judge to deny a settlement between Robinhood and other traders who say they sustained losses when the exchange restricted trading of certain stocks during a social media fueled run, since he says he hasn't received any details on the deal.

  • July 24, 2024

    Ex-SAP Exec Settles Whistleblowing Retaliation Suit

    A former executive of software giant SAP has settled his retaliation and age discrimination claims, according to a Wednesday order by a Pennsylvania federal court.

  • July 24, 2024

    Naval Engineers Urge 4th Circ. To Revive No-Poach Suit

    A pair of former naval engineers have urged the Fourth Circuit to revive their proposed class action accusing military shipbuilding contractors and related firms of using secret "no-poach" agreements, saying their suit was wrongly ruled untimely amid a cover-up of the alleged scheme.

  • July 24, 2024

    IPhone Users Push For Apple Docs On Korea, EU App Stores

    Plaintiffs in the ongoing App Store antitrust suit are accusing Apple of stonewalling their effort to obtain documents detailing procompetitive changes the company made to the online marketplace in South Korea and Europe, saying the tech giant won't turn over the information because it'd undermine Apple's core defense.

  • July 24, 2024

    Senate Dems Demand Scrutiny Of T-Mobile, UScellular Deal

    T-Mobile's plan to buy the wireless operations of yet another mobile network operator — this time, United States Cellular Corp. — several years after it was allowed to merge with Sprint to become the third biggest carrier in the country is a bad idea, a handful of Democratic senators have told the U.S. Department of Justice and FCC.

  • July 24, 2024

    Pawnshop Co. Says Military Law Doesn't Back CFPB's Suit 

    National pawnshop company FirstCash says the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau should drop certain claims in a suit accusing it of subjecting military families to predatory lending, arguing that the bureau has admitted it has no authority to bring certain claims under the law undergirding the allegations.

  • July 24, 2024

    Aerospace Co. Says Engine Buybacks Aren't Anticompetitive

    RTX Corp.'s subsidiary Pratt & Whitney urged a Pennsylvania federal court to toss a $450 million antitrust lawsuit from a "middleman" for used aircraft engine parts, arguing that Pratt & Whitney's decision to deal directly with numerous shops that break down old engines did not harm consumers or freeze the plaintiff out of the market.

  • July 24, 2024

    CFIUS Reviews Slumped In 2023, Penalties Increased

    The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States experienced a significant drop in the number of cases it reviewed in 2023, but levied a record number of penalties last year, according to an annual report to Congress.

  • July 24, 2024

    Last Holdouts Avoid Trial With Deal Over Chicken Price-Fixing

    Chicken buyer plaintiffs say they've reached a settlement with Mountaire Farms and Koch Foods in their suit against the country's biggest broiler chicken producers for allegedly conspiring to raise prices, telling an Illinois federal judge to call off the trial that had been scheduled for September.

  • July 23, 2024

    Knives Out For Another Pro-Agency Landmark After Chevron

    Only weeks after U.S. Supreme Court conservatives took a hatchet to the judicial deference shown to federal agencies, right-leaning lawyers are imploring the justices to rock the administrative law realm again by gutting a New Deal-era precedent at the heart of the modern regulatory system.

  • July 23, 2024

    Kroger And Colo. Talks To Avoid Merger Hearing Stall Out

    Negotiations between Kroger Co. and Colorado enforcers to avoid an injunction hearing in the state's challenge to a $24 billion merger with Albertsons appeared to have stalled, prompting the grocers Tuesday to pitch a state judge on other options to avoid the fast-approaching proceeding.

  • July 23, 2024

    FTC Won't Delay Challenge To Handbag Merger Either

    The Federal Trade Commission has declined to pause its administrative challenge to the $8.5 billion handbag merger between the owners of Coach and Michael Koors, saying that even a district court refusal to temporarily enjoin the merger might not end the FTC's in-house case.

  • July 23, 2024

    ​​​​​​​Nigeria Fines Meta $220M Over WhatsApp Privacy Policy

    Nigerian regulators have hit Meta with a $220 million fine over alleged privacy and antitrust violations and ordered the company to stop sharing WhatsApp users' data with advertisers without express permission, the culmination of a nearly three-year-long investigative process.

  • July 23, 2024

    Microsoft Calls FTC Price Hike Claims 'Misleading' At 9th Circ

    Microsoft pushed back against the Federal Trade Commission's contention that an increase in the company's gaming subscription pricing is evidence of the anticompetitive effects of the software giant's $68.7 billion acquisition of game developer Activision Blizzard Inc., calling the commission out for trying to "reinvent" its case against the merger on appeal to the Ninth Circuit.

  • July 23, 2024

    US, UK, EU Antitrust Enforcers Outline AI Principles

    The top antitrust officials from the U.S. Justice Department, the Federal Trade Commission, the European Commission and the U.K.'s Competition and Markets Authority presented a unified international commitment Tuesday to closely monitor artificial intelligence technology and the companies that they warned could wield AI anticompetitively.

  • July 23, 2024

    Chancery Ends Challenge To $12.5B Qualtrics' SAP Sale

    Saying it was not reasonably conceivable that he would find software giant SAP and Qualtrics International Inc. directors liable for damages after Qualtrics' $12.5 billion sale to Silver Lake Capital despite a superficially better offer, a Delaware vice chancellor on Tuesday dismissed a stockholder challenge to the deal.

  • July 23, 2024

    FTC Attys On Kroger Case Get Extensions After IT Outage

    The administrative law judge overseeing the Federal Trade Commission's in-house challenge to Kroger and Albertsons' $25 billion merger has given the agency and the grocery behemoths two extra days on a couple of filing deadlines after the FTC said the worldwide Microsoft outage left several counsel laptops unusable.

Expert Analysis

  • 4 Important Events In Bank Regulation: A Midyear Review

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    The first six months of 2024 have been fairly stable for the banking industry, though U.S. Supreme Court decisions and proposals from regulators have significantly affected the regulatory standards applicable to insured depository institutions, says Christina Grigorian at Katten.

  • FTC Focus: Competition And The Right To Repair

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    If the Federal Trade Commission includes commercial and industrial products as part of copyright exemptions that allow consumers to modify or repair products, then businesses and affected rights holders will need to consider copyrights' impact on infringement issues, say attorneys at Proskauer.

  • Series

    Skiing And Surfing Make Me A Better Lawyer

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    The skills I’ve learned while riding waves in the ocean and slopes in the mountains have translated to my legal career — developing strong mentor relationships, remaining calm in difficult situations, and being prepared and able to move to a backup plan when needed, says Brian Claassen at Knobbe Martens.

  • Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: June Lessons

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    In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy considers two recent decisions from the Third and Tenth Circuits, and identifies practice tips around class action settlements and standing in securities litigation.

  • Unpacking The Circuit Split Over A Federal Atty Fee Rule

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    Federal circuit courts that have addressed Rule 41(d) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure are split as to whether attorney fees are included as part of the costs of a previously dismissed action, so practitioners aiming to recover or avoid fees should tailor arguments to the appropriate court, says Joseph Myles and Lionel Lavenue at Finnegan.

  • After A Brief Hiccup, The 'Rocket Docket' Soars Back To No. 1

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    The Eastern District of Virginia’s precipitous 2022 fall from its storied rocket docket status appears to have been a temporary aberration, as recent statistics reveal that the court is once again back on top as the fastest federal civil trial court in the nation, says Robert Tata at Hunton.

  • The Current State Of Healthcare Transaction Reviews In Calif.

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    As of April, certain healthcare transactions in California have been subject to additional notification compliance requirements, and complying with these new rules could significantly delay and discourage some deals, says Andrew Demetriou at Husch Blackwell.

  • Recruitment Trends In Emerging Law Firm Frontiers

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    BigLaw firms are facing local recruitment challenges as they increasingly establish offices in cities outside of the major legal hubs, requiring them to weigh various strategies for attracting talent that present different risks and benefits, says Tom Hanlon at Buchanan Law.

  • Behind The Stagecoach Boundary Fare Dispute Settlement

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    The Competition Appeal Tribunal's recent rail network boundary fare settlement offers group action practitioners some much-needed guidance as it reduces the number of remaining parties' five-year dispute from two to one, says Mohsin Patel at Factor Risk Management.

  • What Companies Should Consider Amid Multistate AG Actions

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    The rise of multistate attorney general actions is characterized by increased collaboration and heightened scrutiny across various industries — including Big Tech and gaming — and though coalitions present challenges for targeted companies, they also offer opportunities for streamlined resolutions and coordinated public relations efforts, say attorneys at Cozen O'Connor.

  • Series

    Glassblowing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    I never expected that glassblowing would strongly influence my work as an attorney, but it has taught me the importance of building a solid foundation for your work, learning from others and committing to a lifetime of practice, says Margaret House at Kalijarvi Chuzi.

  • Opinion

    Paid Noncompetes Offer A Better Solution Than FTC's Ban

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    A better alternative to the Federal Trade Commission's recent and widely contested noncompete ban would be a nationwide bright-line rule requiring employers to pay employees during the noncompete period, says Steven Kayman at Rottenberg Lipman.

  • How Associates Can Build A Professional Image

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    As hybrid work arrangements become the norm in the legal industry, early-career attorneys must be proactive in building and maintaining a professional presence in both physical and digital settings, ensuring that their image aligns with their long-term career goals, say Lana Manganiello at Equinox Strategy Partners and Estelle Winsett at Estelle Winsett Professional Image Consulting.

  • 5 Steps To Navigating State Laws On Healthcare Transactions

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    As more states pass legislation requiring healthcare-transaction notice, private equity investors and other deal parties should evaluate the new laws and consider ways to mitigate their effects, say Carol Loepere and Nicole Aiken-Shaban at Reed Smith.

  • Orange Book Warnings Highlight FTC's Drug Price Focus

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    In light of heightened regulatory scrutiny surrounding drug pricing and the Federal Trade Commission's activity in the recent Teva v. Amneal case, branded drug manufacturers should expect the FTC's campaign against allegedly improper Orange Book listings to continue, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

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