Practice Areas
Competition
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January 27, 2012
FTC Sues Omnicare To Block $441M PharMerica Merger
U.S. antitrust regulators on Friday moved to block Omnicare Inc.’s proposed $440.8 million deal for PharMerica Corp. over concerns that a merger of the country’s two largest long-term care pharmacies would raise drug prices, particularly for Medicare patients, and hurt competition.
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January 27, 2012
DuPont's $920M Trade Secrets Win In Kevlar Suit Upheld
A Virginia federal judge on Friday rejected a pair of post-trial motions lodged by body armor maker Kolon Industries Inc., leaving intact a $920 million trade secrets verdict for industry rival DuPont Co.
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January 27, 2012
Trustee Seeks High Court Review Of Garment Antitrust Suit
Factory 2-U Stores Inc.'s Chapter 7 trustee asked the U.S. Supreme Court last week to revive his antitrust suit alleging a group of banks that finance transactions between garment retailers and manufacturers forced the company into bankruptcy.
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January 27, 2012
Accused Auto Light Price Fixer Battles For Taiwan Trip
An Eagle Eyes Traffic Industrial Co. Ltd. executive indicted in a price-fixing conspiracy over aftermarket auto lights on Friday asked a California federal court to overturn an order blocking him from visiting family members in Taiwan for the Chinese New Year.
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January 27, 2012
Investor Admits To Real Estate Bid-Rigging Scheme
A real estate investor pled guilty Friday in California federal court to charges that he took part in a conspiracy in which a group of real estate speculators agreed not to bid against each other at real estate foreclosure auctions.
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January 27, 2012
Airline Services Co. Head Gets 2 Years For Kickback Plot
The former owner of a Florida airline services company was sentenced Friday to two years in prison for taking part in a kickback scheme to defraud charter carrier Ryan International Airlines.
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January 27, 2012
Canada Fines 7 More In Quebec Gas Cartel Probe
Seven Canadians have been sentenced to personal fines after pleading guilty to charges of conspiring to fix the price of gasoline sold at stations in Thetford Mines, Quebec, competition authorities said Friday.
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January 27, 2012
EC Proceeds With Probe Of French Drug Co.'s Dealings
The European Commission has dropped its claims that Servier SAS provided false and misleading information during an investigation, but will continue its probe of whether the French pharmaceutical company reached anti-competitive deals with generic-drug makers, the regulator said Friday.
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January 27, 2012
EU Examines Air France-KLM, Delta, Alitalia Alliance
The European Commission announced Friday that it has opened an investigation into whether a trans-Atlantic joint venture between Delta Air Lines Inc., Air France-KLM SA and Alitalia harms passengers on routes between the U.S. and European Union.
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January 26, 2012
Google, Apple Anti-Poaching Pact Suit Proceeds
A California federal judge on Thursday allowed a proposed class action to proceed against media and technology giants including Apple Inc. and Google Inc. over their alleged anti-competitive agreements not to poach each other’s employees.
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January 26, 2012
Graco Can't Shake FTC Suit Over $650M ITW Deal
A Washington federal judge on Thursday turned down Graco Inc.'s bid to dismiss a Federal Trade Commission suit seeking to halt the industrial fluid manager's proposed $650 million purchase of certain Illinois Tool Works Inc. operations, but agreed the case would be better off in Minnesota.
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January 26, 2012
Indirect Purchaser Classes Stand In LCD Price-Fixing Case
A California federal judge refused Thursday to decertify classes of indirect purchasers in a price-fixing case against LG Display Co. Ltd. and other makers of flat panel displays, rejecting arguments that the plaintiffs can't adequately identify indirect purchasers of the panels or quantify damages in the case.
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January 26, 2012
Nestle Fires Back At Mead Johnson Over Bottle Design IP
Months after it was hit with similar claims, Nestle Healthcare Nutrition Inc. on Thursday accused rival Mead Johnson & Co. LLC of illegally using Nestle's patented bottle design for products that directly compete with nutritional drinks supplied to Nestle under a licensing agreement.
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January 26, 2012
Ex-CDC Official Gets 4 Years For Contract Bribes
The former head manager of the Cincinnati offices of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was sentenced Wednesday to four years in federal prison for taking bribes in exchange for construction contracts.
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January 26, 2012
Hospital Groups Clash Over Doc Request In Competition Battle
Hospital network West Penn Allegheny Health System Inc. told a Pennsylvania federal judge on Thursday that rival UPMC's request for information in an antitrust case against UPMC was in reality a fishing expedition designed to hamper a $475 million merger between West Penn and insurer Highmark Inc.
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January 26, 2012
Vitamin C Buyers Win Class Cert. In Antitrust MDL
A New York federal judge on Wednesday certified classes of direct and indirect vitamin purchasers seeking damages and an injunction against several Chinese manufacturers accused of fixing prices for vitamin C.
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January 26, 2012
Spain Raids Polyurethane Foam Makers In Cartel Probe
Spain's competition regulator said Thursday it had raided the offices of companies producing elastomeric and polyurethane foam insulation amid suspicions the manufacturers were engaging in anti-competitive behavior, including price fixing.
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January 26, 2012
AT&T Posts $6.7B Loss Thanks To T-Mobile Breakup Fee
AT&T Inc. on Thursday reported a $6.7 billion net loss for the fourth quarter of 2011, mainly due to a massive breakup fee paid after the company abandoned its proposed acquisition of T-Mobile USA Inc.
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January 26, 2012
$180M Deal Needs Deeper Scrutiny Under CAFA: Sirius Users
A group of Sirius XM Radio Inc. subscribers told the Second Circuit on Wednesday that the purported $180 million "coupon" settlement in the antitrust suit over the merger that created the satellite radio giant warranted a more intensive look under the Class Action Fairness Act.
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January 26, 2012
Steptoe Nabs 2 Antitrust Experts For DC Office
Steptoe & Johnson LLP has lured a former Shearman & Sterling LLP partner and an ex-White & Case LLP senior associate with Federal Trade Commission experience to boost its antitrust practice in Washington, the firm said Thursday.
Expert Analysis
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It's Not Always Good To Share
The Federal Trade Commission has published for public comment a proposed consent agreement with Sigma Corp., an enforcement action that should be of interest to any company involved in competitor information exchanges, says Kathryn Fenton of Jones Day.
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China's Growing Influence Over Global Transactions
China's recent approval of Seagate Technology PLC's acquisition of a division of Samsung Electronics demonstrates how the country's merger control regime now significantly influences the outcome of global transactions. More importantly, China should be added to the list of major antitrust merger review jurisdictions that may approach the same global transaction differently, say Peter Wang, Sébastien Evrard and Yizhe Zhang of Jones Day.
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Because Jurisprudence Is (Not) Forever
The Third Circuit recently ruled en banc to approve a classwide settlement in Sullivan v. DB Investments, an antitrust case involving diamond giant De Beers. The opinion is unusual not just because it represents a break from routine, but because of how it reaches its result — it appears that the en banc opinion did not consider much of the relevant U.S. Supreme Court jurisprudence on the issues facing it, says Andrew Trask of McGuireWoods LLP.
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Don't Expect Much From DOJ’s New FCPA Guidance
The announcement that the U.S. Department of Justice would be releasing “detailed new guidance” on Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement created an initial buzz of excitement. But what the DOJ meant by “guidance” is almost certainly different from the extraordinary U.K. Bribery Act guidance, and the DOJ is unlikely to modify its aggressive FCPA stance, says Mike Emmick of Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP.
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Analyzing Conspiracy Claims Under Capper-Volstead
In re Fresh and Process Potatoes Antitrust Litigation, an Idaho district court has denied a motion to dismiss — despite limited immunity granted to producers by the Capper-Volstead Act — antitrust conspiracy claims against potato grower cooperatives in several states. The legality of output restriction agreements among agricultural cooperatives and their members seems to be an issue whose time has finally come, says Don Hibner of Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP.
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Goodbye, Convergence
It is increasingly difficult to find a basis for the optimism that led antitrust practitioners in the 1990s to believe regulatory convergence between the U.S. and the European Union would happen. Now, multinational companies operating in both jurisdictions are confronting regulatory conflicts that put at risk policies and practices that long have been lawful in the United States, says Leiv Blad of Bingham McCutchen LLP.
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The Difficulties Of Challenging An FTC Subpoena
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia recently issued a decision in Federal Trade Commission v. Church & Dwight Co. Inc. that underscores how difficult it is to defeat a subpoena issued by the FTC, as ambiguities in its compulsory process resolutions will be resolved in the agency’s favor, say John Roberti and Richard Steuer of Mayer Brown LLP.
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Permitting Private FCPA Suits: Inside HR 3531
A bill recently introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives appears to be an attempt to level the playing field of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement by giving U.S. companies the opportunity to bring suit against foreign concerns. Despite its limited scope, the bill could potentially lead to a substantial increase in private litigation, say attorneys with Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP.
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Emerging Trends In Indirect-Purchaser Antitrust Cases
So long as the Class Action Fairness Act continues to drive indirect-purchaser antitrust claims into federal court, defendants will continue to raise antitrust standing and cite the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Assoc. Gen. Contractors of Cal. v. Cal. State Council of Carpenters in an effort to defeat those claims, say Christopher Micheletti and Patrick Clayton of Zelle Hofmann Voelbel & Mason LLP.
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IP Counsel's 'Cheat Sheet' To FCPA And Travel Act
The tactics used to register, challenge or enforce intellectual property rights in foreign jurisdictions must be carefully viewed through the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act/Travel Act lens. We have created the IP FCPA/Travel Act decision tree, which uniquely traces out the key questions to be answered in any potential corruption case, say Douglas Sawyer and Markus Funk of Perkins Coie LLP.