Judge Skeptical Of Bid To Toss FTC's Zillow, Redfin Case

By Matthew Perlman

A Virginia federal judge seemed skeptical on Wednesday as Zillow Group Inc. and Redfin Corp. pushed their bid to toss the Federal Trade Commission's case over an alleged agreement between the real estate listing companies to not compete for rental ads.

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Live Nation Judge Not 'Inclined' To Delay Trial For Appeal

By Pete Brush

A Manhattan federal judge said Wednesday he is likely to deny counsel for Live Nation's request to appeal rulings sending the government's monopolization claims to trial, after antitrust regulators called that request a "desperate plea" for a delay.

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Amazon, DC AG Delay Antitrust Trial, Again

By Jared Foretek

A local D.C. judge has agreed to delay trial in the city's antitrust lawsuit against Amazon once again, pushing the scheduled start next year from May to September, with the two sides citing the government shutdown's impact on a related Federal Trade Commission case as the cause for the hold-up.

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$17.9M Drug Price-Fixing Deal Advances Despite Objections

By Aaron Keller

A Connecticut federal judge on Wednesday advanced a $17.9 million generic drug price-fixing settlement between 48 states and territories and pharmaceutical companies Bausch Health US LLC, Bausch Health Americas Inc. and Lannett Co. Inc., sidelining objections by consumers suing separately in a Pennsylvania multidistrict litigation case.

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Netflix Swaps Out Latham For Munger Tolles In Antitrust Suit

By Bonnie Eslinger

Latham & Watkins LLP withdrew Wednesday as defense counsel for Netflix in a proposed consumer class action in Illinois federal court claiming Meta cut an illegal deal ceding the video streaming market to Netflix, which is now represented by Munger Tolles & Olson LLP.

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Dems Demand Explanation For DOJ Antitrust Chief's Exit

By Lauren Berg

Two Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee demanded Wednesday that U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi explain to lawmakers why the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust chief was forced to resign, expressing concern about the administration's potential interference with merger reviews and antitrust litigation.

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Cox Tells Calif. It Needs Final Ruling On Charter By July

By Nadia Dreid

Cable behemoth Cox Communications has told the California Public Utilities Commission that it needs a final decision by July on its $34.5 billion merger with Charter so that the companies have time to close the deal before their federal merger clearance period expires.

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EU, UK To Share Info On 'Significant' Antitrust Probes

By Bryan Koenig

British and European Union officials signed a new agreement Wednesday promising to notify each other of major merger and antitrust probes and coordinate their efforts "when necessary," in what they called the first dedicated competition cooperation agreement following the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the EU.

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Google Wins Second Shot To Trim £14B Ad Tech Class Action

By William Janes

Google won a second shot on Wednesday at trimming a £13.6 billion ($18.4 billion) U.K. class action on behalf of website and application publishers who alleged that the U.S. tech giant abused its dominance in the advertising market.

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NCAA Settling Tennis Players' Prize Money Class Action

By Tom Lotshaw

Two tennis players asked a North Carolina federal judge to put class action litigation accusing the NCAA of violating antitrust laws by stopping college athletes from accepting prize money in outside tournaments on hold while the parties hash out a settlement agreement.

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Joe Gibbs Racing Seeks Injunction Against Ex-Director, Rival

By Abigail Harrison

NASCAR giant Joe Gibbs Racing LLC is urging a North Carolina federal court to hand it a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction that will prevent its ex-competition director from using its trade secrets to benefit a direct competitor.

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Grand Slams Can't Break Away From Suit, Tennis Players Say

By David Steele

Tennis Grand Slam tournament operators are too entrenched in the system of alleged mistreatment of players to be separated from those allegations against the sport's governing bodies, the players told a New York federal court in opposing the tournament organizers' bid to escape their lawsuit.

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Talent Shop Hits Back Against UFC Fighters' Discovery Claims

By Tom Lotshaw

A sports talent agency told a Nevada federal judge that it can't be held in contempt for violating a discovery order when it has worked to address real challenges with providing information to fighters who accuse Ultimate Fighting Championship of suppressing wages.

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It's Kickoff Time For FCC Look At Sports Media Marketplace

By Christopher Cole

Sports streaming's rise and the impact of a fragmenting sports programming marketplace on local broadcasters will get new attention from regulators at the Federal Communications Commission.

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Considering The Prospects Of A Robinson-Patman Act Revival

Following a flurry of activity under the Biden administration, Federal Trade Commission price-discrimination cases under the Robinson-Patman Act are at a crossroads, and state-level enforcement could become the next frontier in this area, say attorneys at Hogan Lovells.

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Rebuttal

Substantial Legal Grounds Supported HPE-Juniper Challenge

A recent Law360 guest article argued that the Hewlett Packard-Juniper Networks settlement was part of a trend of antitrust agencies reanchoring themselves in evidence by resisting ill-founded merger challenges, but the complaint against HPE-Juniper actually relied on substantial legal grounds and modern analytical frameworks, says attorney Richard Wolfram.

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AI Trade Secret Conviction Highlights Espionage Risks

A California federal court's conviction last month of an ex-Google engineer who stole artificial intelligence trade secrets for the benefit of China is the latest in a series of foreign economic espionage cases and illustrates the urgent need for U.S. companies to implement robust security measures, says attorney Peter Toren.

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Tom Goldstein Guilty On Tax Evasion, 11 Other Counts

By Jared Foretek

SCOTUSblog founder and famed U.S. Supreme Court advocate Thomas Goldstein was found guilty of tax evasion, as well as aiding in the filing of false tax returns and lying on loan applications, by a Maryland federal jury Wednesday. 

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Patterson Belknap Adds Ex-SDNY Prosecutor Maurene Comey

By Alison Knezevich

Former Manhattan federal prosecutor Maurene Comey, who handled some of the nation's highest-profile cases before she was fired by the Trump administration, has joined Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP, the firm announced Wednesday.

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Cat Cover Story In Ginsburg Health Hack Gives Judge Pause

By Hayley Fowler

A Fourth Circuit jurist on Wednesday seemed fixated on the feline excuse a former hospital transplant coordinator gave FBI agents when he was questioned in 2019 about accessing U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's healthcare records.

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Democrats Cast Doubt On New DOJ Fraud Role

By Courtney Bublé

During the confirmation hearing on Wednesday for President Donald Trump's nominee for the new assistant attorney general for fraud role, Democrats expressed anxiety about the White House's involvement in the fraud crackdown and how genuine the effort is.

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Florida Co. Blames Holland & Hart For $21M Judgment

By Zach Dupont

A Florida-based company claimed in Colorado federal court Wednesday that a Holland & Hart LLP attorney was negligent in representing it in a lawsuit from the city of Fort Collins that eventually ended in a more than $21 million judgment against the company.

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'Do Not Lie To Me': Calif. Judge Panel Agrees Credibility Is Key

By Bonnie Eslinger

California federal judges speaking at a Federal Bar Association panel in San Francisco have urged attorneys to protect their credibility in the courtroom, with one judge bluntly telling lawyers "do not lie to me" and another revealing it's "shocking" how frequently judges share notes about lawyers.

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Justices Set New Limits On Recess Testimony Talks

By Cara Salvatore

A unanimous Supreme Court set limits Wednesday on the right to counsel during overnight breaks in a defendant's testimony under the Sixth Amendment, ruling that prohibiting talk about "testimony for its own sake" strikes an appropriate constitutional balance.

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Foley & Lardner Wants 'Scattershot' Malpractice Suit Tossed

By Rose Krebs

Foley & Lardner LLP is urging the Delaware Superior Court to toss a malpractice suit accusing the firm of negligence in representing an officer of a now-defunct food recycling company in a Chancery Court case that led to a $1.6 million judgment, saying it "suffers from basic pleading defects."

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