Competition

  • September 30, 2024

    Medical Device Co. Wins $25M Verdict In Poaching Trial

    Medical device company Cynosure has won a $25 million jury award following a weekslong trial in Massachusetts federal court on its claims that a rival business raided its sales and marketing talent and caused the employees to breach their noncompete and nonsolicitation agreements.

  • September 30, 2024

    Chevron-Hess 2nd Oil Merger To Get FTC OK With CEO Ban

    A divided Federal Trade Commission signed off Monday on a deal allowing Chevron to buy Hess, permitting the $53 billion megamerger on the condition that Hess CEO John B. Hess be banned from Chevron's board, in the second such CEO-banning deal the FTC has inked in the last year.

  • September 30, 2024

    Epic Accuses Samsung Of Helping Google Block App Fix

    Epic Games filed a new federal lawsuit Monday against Google and Samsung, alleging the search giant and the phonemaker have teamed up "to preemptively undermine" a looming order forcing Google to permit competition with its Play Store.

  • September 30, 2024

    5 Firms Guide DirecTV, Dish On $10B Debt Exchange Merger

    DirecTV said Monday it has agreed to purchase EchoStar's video distribution business Dish DBS, including Dish TV and Sling TV, for a nominal $1 while absorbing nearly $10 billion worth of its debt, in a rare debt exchange-driven megadeal that is being led by at least five law firms. 

  • September 27, 2024

    Calif. Appeals Court Won't Revive Suit Targeting Zero Emission Reg

    A California appeals court has refused to jump-start a natural gas vehicle coalition's lawsuit targeting an Advanced Clean Trucks regulation aimed at boosting the sale of electric zero-emission medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, ruling state regulators properly considered alternatives and impacts.

  • September 27, 2024

    Apple, Visa And Mastercard Want Out Of 'Tap Pay' Fee Suit

    Apple, Visa and Mastercard on Thursday urged an Illinois federal court to toss several retailers' proposed antitrust class action accusing the three of conspiring to restrain competition in point-of-sale transaction payment networks, saying in separate motions that allegedly unlawful agreements they entered "expressly preserve" Apple's right to compete.

  • September 27, 2024

    Disney Wants FuboTV Tying Suit Tossed Before Trial

    Disney told a New York federal judge Thursday that FuboTV in its tying claims against the programming giant still hasn't shown how Disney's bundling practice is out of the ordinary, saying that similar bundles have existed for years and have been cleared by the courts and the Federal Communications Commision.

  • September 27, 2024

    RealPage Wants DOJ Antitrust Case Moved To Tennessee

    RealPage has asked a North Carolina federal court to transfer the government's antitrust case against it to Tennessee, where private litigation has been playing out over claims the software company helps residential landlords fix rental prices.

  • September 27, 2024

    NC Biz Court Trims Pot Farm Fight With 'Amazon Of Hemp'

    An online hemp retailer has narrowed a North Carolina farm's lawsuit alleging the retailer doctored its THC reports before listing the farm's products for sale online, with a state Business Court judge finding they aren't competitors and the farm otherwise failed to show the retailer tried to pass off the hemp producer's products as its own.

  • September 27, 2024

    Why Many Drugs Remain Pricey 40 Years After Hatch-Waxman

    In the four decades since Congress passed the Hatch-Waxman Act in an effort to make generic drugs more available, the pharmaceutical industry has used patent thickets, "evergreening" and pay-for-delay tactics to block competition and keep prices of life-saving specialty drugs astronomical, several legal experts told Law360, while the industry argues other parties shoulder more of the blame.

  • September 27, 2024

    Off The Bench: College Sports Dominates Legal Landscape

    In this week's Off The Bench, the NCAA and the athletes in the big name, image and likeness settlement try to redo the terms to satisfy the overseeing judge, Reggie Bush says his image has been exploited by his alma mater and the NCAA for years, and the Pac-12 claims that it's being strong-armed by a rival conference for coaxing away its teams.

  • September 27, 2024

    NY Court Won't Transfer DOJ's Live Nation Antitrust Case

    The New York federal judge overseeing the government's antitrust case against Live Nation said Friday he will not transfer the action to Washington, D.C., where a court handled a settlement clearing the concert promotion giant's 2010 purchase of Ticketmaster.

  • September 27, 2024

    Lawyer Wields Blank Rome Atty Voicemail To Bolster DQ Bid

    An attorney who is suing three lawyers from Blank Rome LLP and has asked a federal court to disqualify the firm's other attorneys from representing their colleagues — alleging they contacted one of her witnesses — told the court Friday she accessed a phone message that strengthens her arguments.

  • September 27, 2024

    Taxation With Representation: Kirkland, Skadden, Cleary

    In this week's Taxation With Representation, Blackstone and Vista Equity Partners acquire Smartsheet Inc., Macquarie Asset Management takes a stake in D.E. Shaw Renewables Investment Group, and Apogee Enterprises Inc. buys UW Interco LLC from Heartwood Partners.

  • September 27, 2024

    'No Question' Google Faces Ad Tech Competition, Judge Says

    The Virginia federal judge weighing the fate of Google's display advertising placement technology signaled potential trouble for the Justice Department on Friday, during a dramatic last day of the bench trial where she suggested the market is as competitive as the search giant maintains.

  • September 27, 2024

    UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

    This past week in London has seen Coca-Cola bring a trademark infringement claim against its former marketing director, Glencore face legal action by American Century ETF Trust, law firm Bishop Lloyd & Jackson defend itself against two solicitors it worked alongside during inquiries into Grenfell Tower, and a U.K. cruise line face a claim by a subsidiary of the sanctioned gambling platform GTLK.

  • September 27, 2024

    UK Drops Probe Into Amazon's $4B AI Investment

    The Competition and Markets Authority dropped its formal probe on Friday into Amazon's $4 billion investment in Anthropic, a U.S. artificial intelligence startup, after it found that the companies do not hit thresholds for investigation in Britain.

  • September 26, 2024

    NCAA, Athletes Make Tweaks To $2.78B NIL Settlement

    The National Collegiate Athletic Association and the athletes suing over the organization's name, image and likeness compensation rules on Thursday presented some clarifications to their proposed $2.78 billion antitrust settlement after a California federal judge took issue with some of the deal's terms.

  • September 26, 2024

    Google Lacks Power To Dictate Market, Ad Tech Judge Told

    Google's lead expert witness described an online advertising placement technology industry rife with competition Thursday, telling a Virginia federal judge that the U.S. Justice Department's monopolization allegations exclude key competitors from an improperly defined market.

  • September 26, 2024

    Sen. Warren Presses OCC, Fed For Tighter Leash On NYCB

    Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., demanded Wednesday that federal regulators slap New York Community Bancorp with a higher minimum capital requirement, calling out what she alleges has been lax oversight of the bank.

  • September 26, 2024

    Belgian Co. Can't Keep Using Ad Space Rent-Free, ECJ Says

    The European Court of Justice on Thursday upheld a 2019 European Commission ruling that a street furniture company's owed rent for Brussels bus shelter advertising space, agreeing with the commission that allowing the company to continue using the ad displays without paying rent or taxes constituted unlawful state aid.

  • September 26, 2024

    Helicopter-Maker Claims Supplier Had 'Reliability Issues'

    A former Fort Worth, Texas-based Bell Helicopter Textron Inc. engineer claimed a supplier at the center of a $100 million trade secrets lawsuit delivered parts that had "reliability issues," saying Thursday during a trial in Texas state court that the supplier had long-standing problems.

  • September 26, 2024

    FCC Opens Airwaves For NGSO Fixed Satellite Services

    The Federal Communications Commission agreed Thursday to set aside a swath of spectrum in the 17 gigahertz band for non-geostationary orbit fixed satellite services, a move the agency says will advance competition and high-speed connectivity.

  • September 26, 2024

    Visa Case Continues Antitrust Focus On 'Middlemen'

    The antitrust case filed by the U.S. Department of Justice against Visa on Tuesday is the administration's latest attack on commercial "middlemen" that enforcers say contribute to high consumer prices by using their dominance to charge inflated fees.

  • September 26, 2024

    NC Medical Equipment Maker Can't Ditch Unfair Biz Suit

    The North Carolina Business Court has denied a medical equipment maker's bid to get a win based on the pleadings in a fraudulent concealment and unfair trade practices lawsuit alleging that it stole the business model and a pregnancy support garment design from a rival.

Expert Analysis

  • Look For Flags On Expert Claims After Sunday Ticket Reversal

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    A California federal judge’s recent reversal of a jury’s $4.7 billion antitrust verdict in the NFL Sunday Ticket case indicates that litigants may be inclined to challenge expert testimony admissibility under Rule 702 of the Federal Rules of Evidence, and that judges may increasingly accept such challenges, say attorneys at Kutak Rock.

  • Takeaways From Virginia's $2B Trade Secrets Verdict Reversal

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    The Virginia Court of Appeals' recent reversal of the $2 billion damages award in Pegasystems v. Appian underscores the claimant's burden to show damages causation and highlights how an evidentiary ruling could lead to reversible error, say John Lanham and Kamran Jamil at Morrison Foerster.

  • UK Judgment Could Change Anti-Money Laundering Regimes

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    After the Court of Appeal of England and Wales' determination that criminal property remains criminal property in the hands of its purchaser even if purchased at market value, many businesses could face a new or heightened risk of prosecution for criminality in their supply chains and related money laundering offenses, say lawyers at Macfarlanes.

  • How Justices Upended The Administrative Procedure Act

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    In its recent Loper Bright, Corner Post and Jarkesy decisions, the U.S. Supreme Court fundamentally changed the Administrative Procedure Act in ways that undermine Congress and the executive branch, shift power to the judiciary, curtail public and business input, and create great uncertainty, say Alene Taber and Beth Hummer at Hanson Bridgett.

  • Jarkesy May Thwart Consumer Agencies' Civil Penalty Power

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    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.

  • Mirror, Mirror On The Wall, Is My Counterclaim Bound To Fall?

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    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.

  • Bank M&A Continues To Lag Amid Regulatory Ambiguity

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    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.

  • FTC's Drug Middlemen Probe Highlights Ongoing Scrutiny

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    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.

  • Series

    Playing Dungeons & Dragons Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    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.

  • Considerations When Using Publicly Available Data To Train AI

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    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.

  • Parsing NJ Court's Rationale For Denying Lipitor Class Cert.

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    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.

  • Unpacking The Latest FTC Guidance On Multilevel Marketing

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    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.

  • 3 Leadership Practices For A More Supportive Firm Culture

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    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.

  • E-Discovery Quarterly: Rulings On Hyperlinked Documents

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    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.

  • Loper Bright Limits Federal Agencies' Ability To Alter Course

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    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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