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Competition
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July 10, 2024
Walmart IP Foe May Face $2.9M Penalty After Jury Win Tossed
Counsel for a food tech startup that saw its $115 million patent infringement verdict against Walmart nixed may be ordered to pay the retail giant's $2.9 million legal bill due to misrepresentations about a key piece of evidence, an Arkansas federal judge said.
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July 10, 2024
Pa. Judge Skeptical Of Pausing FTC's Noncompete Ban
A Pennsylvania federal judge on Wednesday seemed hesitant to grant a tree services company's request to halt the Federal Trade Commission's recent ban on noncompete agreements, as attorneys for the company struggled to point to concrete harms it would suffer if the ban were to take effect as scheduled.
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July 10, 2024
Kirkland, Skadden Steer $1.8B Honeywell Natural Gas Biz Deal
Kirkland & Ellis LLP-led Honeywell said Wednesday it has agreed to acquire Air Products' liquefied natural gas process technology and equipment business for $1.81 billion in an all-cash transaction, with Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP sitting on the other side of the bargaining table.
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July 10, 2024
SEC Probes NYSE's Bid To Extend SPAC Merger Deadlines
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commision wants more time to investigate a New York Stock Exchange proposal that would lengthen deadlines to complete certain mergers involving special purpose acquisition companies to 42 months, saying NYSE's proposal departs from typical time limits intended to protect investors.
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July 09, 2024
South Africa Drops J&J Probe After TB Drug Price Cuts
South Africa's antitrust office has said it's going to drop its investigation over whether Johnson & Johnson engaged in anticompetitive conduct by filing a patent there for a tuberculosis drug, after the drugmaker agreed to lower the cost of bedaquiline by 40% and allow generic versions of the drug on the market.
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July 09, 2024
2 Cases In Visa, Mastercard MDL Ready For Trial, Judge Says
The New York federal judge handling multidistrict litigation over Visa and Mastercard merchant fees suggested on Monday separating from the MDL the lawsuits involving the Target and 7-Eleven plaintiffs, saying the cases are ready for trial and should be transferred to the Southern District of New York.
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July 09, 2024
Industry, FCC Argue Net Neutrality's Fate After Chevron's Fall
Industry groups and the Federal Communications Commission filed competing briefs with the Sixth Circuit over whether to delay the enforcement of net neutrality rules after the U.S. Supreme Court tossed the longstanding Chevron doctrine that gave wide deference to agency decision making.
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July 09, 2024
Fla. Judge Won't Nix Antitrust Claims Against Alcon
The Florida federal judge presiding over the multidistrict litigation alleging disposable contact lens sellers conspired to fix prices refused Tuesday to let Alcon escape antitrust claims by an online contact lens reseller and sent the suit back to New York.
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July 09, 2024
Amazon Gets 'Buy Box' Rigging Case Tossed, For Now
A Washington federal court has dismissed a proposed class action accusing Amazon of using its "Buy Box" feature to deceive consumers after finding that the two men bringing the claims failed to include any details about the transactions they made and allegedly overpaid for.
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July 09, 2024
Healthcare Cases To Watch: A 2024 Midyear Report
Courts across the U.S. this year will oversee key cases to the healthcare industry, from multidistrict litigation over the Change Healthcare hack to a challenge of a state gender-affirming care ban at the Supreme Court. Here are the healthcare cases to watch in the second half of 2024.
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July 09, 2024
FTC Is Denied Amazon's Instructions On Signal Use, For Now
A Washington federal judge refused Tuesday to give the Federal Trade Commission a peek into what it contends is the extensive use of Signal by Jeff Bezos and other top Amazon.com executives to hide communications relevant to a monopolization lawsuit, preferring to order deposition testimony on that use first.
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July 09, 2024
Google Says Social Media Ruling Hurts Common Carrier Case
Google is telling an Ohio state court that a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling bolsters its case against being reclassified as a common carrier.
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July 09, 2024
FCC Majority Takes Heat From House GOP Over New Regs
Democratic leaders of the Federal Communications Commission defended their regulatory policies Tuesday against House GOP critics who accused the agency of tacking in a partisan direction and passing new rules that Republicans said exceed the agency's statutory limits.
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July 09, 2024
Aetna Beats Blue Cross In NC Health Plan Contract Battle
An administrative judge affirmed North Carolina's switch of its employee and retiree health plan to Aetna, reasoning Blue Cross Blue Shield failed to prove state officials made errors favoring the competitor when evaluating bids.
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July 09, 2024
FTC Says Drug Middlemen Inflate Costs, Squeeze Pharmacies
The Federal Trade Commission said Tuesday that its study of pharmacy benefit managers has shown that six large companies now control 95% of all prescriptions filled in the U.S., allowing them to profit at the expense of patients and independent pharmacies.
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July 09, 2024
Chicken Buyers' Cost-Saving Deal With Producers Approved
An Illinois federal judge granted final approval Tuesday to settlements direct chicken buyers struck with producers that beat their price-fixing claims at summary judgment or trial, saving them about $1 million in costs they could have otherwise owed the companies.
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July 09, 2024
House Dems Seek Info From DOI Over Alleged Shale Cartel
House Democrats sitting on the House Natural Resources Committee penned a letter Tuesday seeking information from the U.S. Department of the Interior concerning eight oil companies accused of colluding with the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Companies to artificially inflate gas prices.
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July 09, 2024
Judge Calls Cost Of DOJ's Assa Abloy Market Study 'Insane'
A D.C. federal judge took the U.S. Department of Justice and its monitoring trustee to task Tuesday for their pursuit of an open-ended look at Assa Abloy's books to check for anticompetitive harms from a 2023 merger, excoriating budget estimates pricing the investigation at a minimum of $1.7 million.
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July 09, 2024
Goodwin Adds MoFo Antitrust, Fintech Leaders In DC
Goodwin Procter LLP has brought on three partners from Morrison Foerster LLP in Washington, D.C., including the chair of Morrison Foerster's antitrust litigation practice and the co-leader of its financial technology practice, the firm announced Monday.
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July 08, 2024
Smoke Shops Say Rivals Are Copying Name, Filching Goodwill
A Washington smoke chain has hit several rivals with trademark infringement lawsuits, accusing them of unauthorized use of its name, Smoke City, so they can lean on the goodwill it has developed with customers.
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July 08, 2024
Hyundai Falsely Inflates Electric Car Sale Growth, Dealers Say
Hyundai dealers filed a Robinson-Patman Act price discrimination suit in Illinois federal court Friday accusing the automotive giant of running a scheme to keep up the appearance of growing electric car sales by causing dealers to report fake sales and rewarding them with perks including discounts, popular models and coupons for customers.
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July 08, 2024
Assa Abloy Says No Monitor 'Blank Check' After Merger Deal
Assa Abloy on Monday reasserted its bid to rein in a monitoring trustee installed after the company settled a government merger challenge, arguing ahead of a court hearing that the government is aiming to roll back the parties' deal and carry out a more expansive investigation through the monitor.
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July 08, 2024
Texas Anesthesia Co. Can't Pause Or Appeal Suit, FTC Says
The Federal Trade Commission urged a Texas federal court not to pause its suit accusing U.S. Anesthesia Partners Inc. of a monopolistic "roll-up" of Lone Star State anesthesia practices, arguing the company can't appeal an order refusing to toss the case against it.
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July 08, 2024
Justices Told To Ignore 'Hopeless' Challenge To Antitrust Test
A group of wholesalers who say the makers of 5-Hour Energy illegally favored Costco in distributing the energy drink shots told the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to reject the drink-maker's certiorari petition, saying it asks the justices to take on the role of fact-finders.
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July 08, 2024
Kirkland, Fenwick Steer Lilly's $3.2B Morphic Acquisition
Eli Lilly and Co. unveiled Monday a $3.2 billion all-cash deal to acquire biopharmaceutical company Morphic Holding Inc., which is developing oral therapies to treat Crohn's disease and other bowel chronic diseases, in a 10-figure transaction guided by Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Fenwick & West LLP.
Expert Analysis
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Wiretap Use In Cartel Probes Likely To Remain An Exception
Although the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division has recently signaled interest in wiretaps, the use of this technology to capture evidence of antitrust conspiracies and pursue monopolization as a criminal matter has been rare historically, and is likely to remain so, say Carsten Reichel and Will Conway at DLA Piper.
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Playing The Odds: Criminal Charges Related To Sports Betting
In light of recent sports betting scandals involving MLB player Shohei Ohtani and NBA player Jontay Porter, institutions and individuals involved in athletics should be aware of and prepared to address the legal issues, including potential criminal charges, that sports gambling may bring to their door, say attorneys at Steptoe.
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Series
Playing Chess Makes Me A Better Lawyer
There are many ways that chess skills translate directly into lawyer skills, but for me, the bigger career lessons go beyond the direct parallels — playing chess has shown me the value of seeing gradual improvement in and focusing deep concentration on a nonwork endeavor, says attorney Steven Fink.
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Key FCC Enforcement Issues In AT&T Location Data Appeal
AT&T’s decision to challenge a $57 million fine from the Federal Communications Commission for its alleged treatment of customer location information highlights interesting and fundamental issues about the constitutionality of FCC enforcement, say Patrick O’Donnell and Jason Neal at HWG.
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Litigation Inspiration: Attys Can Be Heroic Like Olympians
Although litigation won’t earn anyone an Olympic medal in Paris this summer, it can be worthy of the same lasting honor if attorneys exercise focused restraint — seeking both their clients’ interests and those of the court — instead of merely pursuing every advantage short of sanctionable conduct, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.
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What TikTok's Race Against The Clock Teaches Chinese Firms
The Biden administration's recent divestiture deadline on TikTok parent ByteDance provides useful information for other China-based companies looking to do business in the U.S., including the need to keep products for each market separate and implement firewalls at the design stage, says Richard Lomuscio at Stinson.
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Updated Federal Rules Can Improve Product Liability MDLs
The recent amendment of a federal evidence rule regarding expert testimony and the proposal of a civil rule on managing early discovery in multidistrict legislation hold great promise for promoting the uniform and efficient processes that high-stakes product liability cases particularly need, say Alan Klein and William Heaston at Duane Morris.
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Lean Into The 'Great Restoration' To Retain Legal Talent
As the “great resignation,” in which employees voluntarily left their jobs in droves, has largely dissipated, legal employers should now work toward the idea of a “great restoration,” adopting strategies to effectively hire, onboard and retain top legal talent, says Molly McGrath at Hiring & Empowering Solutions.
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Live Nation May Shake It Off In A Long Game With The DOJ
Don't expect a swift resolution in the U.S. Department of Justice's case against Live Nation, but a long litigation, with the company likely to represent itself as the creator of a competitive ecosystem, and the government faced with explaining how the ticketing giant formed under its watch, say Thomas Kliebhan and Taylor Hixon at GRSM50.
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NCAA Settlement May End The NIL Model As We Know It
The recent House v. NCAA settlement in California federal court, in which the NCAA agreed to allow schools to directly pay March Madness television revenue to their athletes, may send outside name, image and likeness collectives in-house, says Mike Ingersoll at Womble Bond.
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Opinion
The FTC And DOJ Should Backtrack On RealPage
The antitrust agencies ought to reverse course on their enforcement actions against RealPage, which are based on a faulty legal premise, risk further property shortages and threaten the use of algorithms that are central to the U.S. economy, says Thomas Stratmann at George Mason University.
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Series
Fishing Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Atop the list of ways fishing makes me a better lawyer is the relief it offers from the chronic stress of a demanding caseload, but it has also improved my listening skills and patience, and has served as an exceptional setting for building earnest relationships, says Steven DeGeorge at Robinson Bradshaw.
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Exploring Alternatives To Noncompetes Ahead Of FTC Ban
Ahead of the Sept. 4 effective date for the Federal Trade Commission's noncompete ban, employers should seek new ways to protect their proprietary and other sensitive information, including by revising existing confidentiality and nondisclosure agreements, says Harvey Linder at Culhane.
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A Healthier Legal Industry Starts With Emotional Intelligence
The legal profession has long been plagued by high rates of mental health issues, in part due to attorneys’ early training and broader societal stereotypes — but developing one’s emotional intelligence is one way to foster positive change, collectively and individually, says attorney Esperanza Franco.
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To Make Your Legal Writing Clear, Emulate A Master Chef
To deliver clear and effective written advocacy, lawyers should follow the model of a fine dining chef — seasoning a foundation of pure facts with punchy descriptors, spicing it up with analogies, refining the recipe and trimming the fat — thus catering to a sophisticated audience of decision-makers, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.