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Competition
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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 10, 2024
Eversheds Adds Ex-Quinn Emanuel Competition Co-Head
Eversheds Sutherland has hired a former co-head of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP's competition practice in the U.K. as one of two senior hires in London to boost its global disputes practice.
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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.
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August 30, 2024
Hotel Chains, Software Co. Fight Algorithmic Pricing Suit
Major hotel chains and software provider SAS Institute Inc. have asked a California federal court to toss a proposed class action from hotel guests alleging the companies used a shared pricing algorithm to fix and raise room rates nationwide.
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August 30, 2024
Harris Admin Would Stay Course On Tough Antitrust Policy
Just two days after food and candy giant Mars announced its blockbuster $35.9 billion Kellanova purchase, Vice President Kamala Harris's campaign indicated plans to “crack down” on mergers between large food companies. That would differ significantly from another Trump presidency, which could see a generally more relaxed antitrust environment. Here, Law360 explores anticipated policy differences between the two.
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August 30, 2024
Monthly Merger Review Snapshot
The Federal Trade Commission went to court against Kroger's $25 billion purchase of Albertsons and geared up for its looming handbags merger case, the Justice Department added to its case against Live Nation, and the sports-streaming juggernaut partnering ESPN, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery hit a significant roadblock.
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August 29, 2024
Doctor Wants Stepson Barred From Selling Medial Device
A Texas doctor has asked a federal court to step in and stop his stepson from selling "micro-current therapy medical devices," saying in a motion this week that his stepson was still using his trademarks despite the fact that he had canceled his license.
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August 29, 2024
Broadcom Looks To Toss Samsung's Chip Antitrust Case
Broadcom has urged a California federal court to toss a case from Samsung accusing the chipmaker of blocking competitors from the market, saying the companies' supply agreement was not exclusive and did not tie the sale of any product to another product.
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August 29, 2024
2nd Circ. Allows Google Advertisers To Wait To Appeal Loss
The Second Circuit on Wednesday allowed a group of Massachusetts-based gym and spa businesses to drop their challenge of an order tossing their antitrust claims from multidistrict litigation accusing Google of monopolizing digital advertising, but permitted them to refile it once the trial judge decides the MDL's remaining claims.
Expert Analysis
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The Show Must Go On: Noncompete Uncertainty In Film, TV
The Federal Trade Commission has taken action to ban noncompetes while the entertainment industry is in the midst of a massive shift away from traditional media, so it is important for studio heads and content owners alike to understand the fate of the rule and their options going forward, say Christopher Chatham and Douglas Smith at Manatt.
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Series
Serving In The National Guard Makes Me A Better Lawyer
My ongoing military experience as a judge advocate general in the National Guard has shaped me as a person and a lawyer, teaching me the importance of embracing confidence, balance and teamwork in both my Army and civilian roles, says Danielle Aymond at Baker Donelson.
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Big Business May Come To Rue The Post-Administrative State
Many have framed the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decisions overturning Chevron deference and extending the window to challenge regulations as big wins for big business, but sand in the gears of agency rulemaking may be a double-edged sword, creating prolonged uncertainty that impedes businesses’ ability to plan for the future, says Todd Baker at Columbia University.
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A Midyear Forecast: Tailwinds Expected For Atty Hourly Rates
Hourly rates for partners, associates and support staff continued to rise in the first half of this year, and this growth shows no signs of slowing for the rest of 2024 and into next year, driven in part by the return of mergers and acquisitions and the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence, says Chuck Chandler at Valeo Partners.
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Opinion
Cell Tech Patent Holdup Is Stalling Automaker Innovation
Courts and Congress should seek to stem anticompetitive harm caused by standard-essential patent holders squeezing automakers with unfairly high royalties for cellular connectivity technology, says Charles Haake at Alliance for Automotive Innovation.
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Mitigating Risks Amid 10-Year Sanctions Enforcement Window
In response to recent legislation, which doubles the statute of limitations for actions related to certain U.S. sanctions and provides regulators greater opportunity to investigate possible violations, companies should take specific steps to account for the increased civil and criminal enforcement risk, say attorneys at Freshfields.
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Opinion
States Should Loosen Law Firm Ownership Restrictions
Despite growing buzz, normalized nonlawyer ownership of law firms is a distant prospect, so the legal community should focus first on liberalizing state restrictions on attorney and firm purchases of practices, which would bolster succession planning and improve access to justice, says Michael Di Gennaro at The Law Practice Exchange.
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FBI Raid Signals Growing Criminal Enforcement Of Algorithms
The U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division's increased willingness to pursue the use of algorithmic pricing as a potential criminal violation means that companies need to understand the software solutions they employ and stay abreast of antitrust best practices when contracting with providers, say attorneys at Rule Garza.
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Series
Solving Puzzles Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Tackling daily puzzles — like Wordle, KenKen and Connections — has bolstered my intellectual property litigation practice by helping me to exercise different mental skills, acknowledge minor but important details, and build and reinforce good habits, says Roy Wepner at Kaplan Breyer.
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What UK Digital Markets Act Will Mean For Competition Law
The new Digital Markets Act’s reforms will strengthen the Competition and Markets Authority's investigatory and enforcement powers across its full remit of merger control and antitrust investigations, representing a seismic shift in the U.K. competition and consumer law landscape, say lawyers at Travers Smith.
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Texas Ethics Opinion Flags Hazards Of Unauthorized Practice
The Texas Professional Ethics Committee's recently issued proposed opinion finding that in-house counsel providing legal services to the company's clients constitutes the unauthorized practice of law is a valuable clarification given that a UPL violation — a misdemeanor in most states — carries high stakes, say Hilary Gerzhoy and Julienne Pasichow at HWG.
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Realtor Settlement May Create New Antitrust Pitfalls
Following a recent antitrust settlement between the National Association of Realtors and home sellers, practices are set to change and the increased competition may benefit both brokers and homebuyers, but the loss of the customary method of buyer broker compensation could lead to new antitrust concerns, says Colin Ahler at Snell & Wilmer.
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In Memoriam: The Modern Administrative State
On June 28, the modern administrative state, where courts deferred to agency interpretations of ambiguous statutes, died when the U.S. Supreme Court overruled its previous decision in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council — but it is survived by many cases decided under the Chevron framework, say Joseph Schaeffer and Jessica Deyoe at Babst Calland.
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Preparing For CFPB 'Junk Fee' Push Into Mortgage Industry
As the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau considers expanding its "junk fee" initiative into mortgage closing costs, mortgage lenders and third parties must develop plans now that anticipate potential rulemaking or enforcement activity in this space, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.
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How High Court Approached Time Limit On Reg Challenges
The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Corner Post v. Federal Reserve Board effectively gives new entities their own personal statute of limitations to challenge rules and regulations, and Justice Brett Kavanaugh's concurrence may portend the court's view that those entities do not need to be directly regulated, say attorneys at Snell & Wilmer.