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Featured
2nd Circ. Rejects 'New Standard' Of Patent Monopolies
A Second Circuit panel on Monday revived antitrust allegations accusing Novartis of concealing the true history of an eye syringe treatment's development from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to edge Regeneron out of the market, faulting a district court for holding that antitrust markets can't be "coextensive" with the patent.
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April 19, 2024
Yardi Ordered To Provide Info On Apartment Pricing Algorithm
Real estate management software company Yardi Systems Inc. is going to have to turn over information about who has been using its rent maximizer algorithm to renters who claim that at least 11 property management companies have been using the service to fix rental costs, a federal judge has said.
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April 19, 2024
Vegas Paper Wants Antitrust Suit Paused For Appeal
The Las Vegas Review-Journal asked a Nevada federal judge to pause the Las Vegas Sun's antitrust suit against it, pending an appeal to the Ninth Circuit over the core agreement between the papers that the Review-Journal says the judge wrongly cleared.
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April 19, 2024
DOJ Can't Coordinate Google Ad Tech Discovery With Texas
A Virginia magistrate judge on Friday denied a request from the U.S. Department of Justice to coordinate discovery in its suit accusing Google of monopolizing key digital advertising technology with a similar case from state enforcers pending in Texas.
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April 19, 2024
AI Image Cos. Say Artists Offer Little Proof In Copyright Case
Four companies that make or distribute artificial intelligence software that creates art through prompts have told a California federal court that a proposed class action from artists must end, arguing the plaintiffs still have not shown proof that any of the businesses infringed or induced infringement of copyrighted works.
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April 19, 2024
NY Scraps Proposal Impacting Local Broadband Networks
Public broadband advocates are applauding a budget bill approved by New York's state Legislature that lacks previously proposed language they say would have weakened the state's rollout of locally owned wireless networks.
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April 19, 2024
French Train Biz Alstom Selling Signaling Biz For $671M
French train manufacturer Alstom said Friday it has agreed to sell its North American conventional signaling business to German brake-maker Knorr-Bremse AG for about €630 million ($671 million).
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April 19, 2024
Sidley, Perkins Coie Guiding Nordstrom On Strategic Review
Sidley Austin LLP and Perkins Coie LLP are representing a special committee of Nordstrom Inc.'s board of directors that is looking into taking the Seattle-based luxury department store private after an earlier 2017 go-private plan fell apart.
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April 19, 2024
Antitrust Case Judge Reveals Husband's Ties With Apple
A New Jersey federal magistrate judge assigned to the U.S. Department of Justice's recent iPhone antitrust case disclosed on Friday her husband has ties to Apple, but told the parties she does not believe she needs to recuse herself.
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April 19, 2024
Off The Bench: NCAA Rules, Trans Athlete Win, NBA Pro's Ban
In this week's Off The Bench, the NCAA formally lifted restrictions on athletes transferring schools and how they can receive name, image and likeness money, West Virginia's transgender sports ban is dealt a blow by the Fourth Circuit, and betting costs an NBA player his career.
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April 19, 2024
Taxation With Representation: Kirkland, Cleary, O'Melveny
In this week's Taxation With Representation, Resideo Technologies Inc. announced plans to buy Snap One Holdings Corp., APi Group said it bought an elevator maintenance company, Prysmian said it agreed to purchase Encore Wire, and Sayari said it closed on an investment from TPG.
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April 19, 2024
Mondi Drops Pursuit Of DS Smith After Int'l Paper Deal
British packaging company Mondi officially dropped out of its running battle with International Paper to buy DS Smith on Friday after the two latter companies struck a more than $7 billion deal to join forces earlier this week.
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April 19, 2024
UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London
This past week in London has seen U.K. holiday resort chain Butlins target Aviva and a huddle of insurers, Meta and WhatsApp tackle a patents claim by telecommunications company Semitel, an ongoing construction dispute between Essex County Council and Balfour Beatty, and Formycon AG hit a pharmaceutical company for infringing medical products. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.
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April 18, 2024
EU Antitrust Chief Says Merger Tool Not A 'Power Grab'
The European Commission's top competition enforcer said Thursday the agency has taken a measured approach to using its newly asserted power to review mergers that fall short of local thresholds, as the European trading bloc's high court mulls a challenge of that authority from DNA sequencing company Illumina.
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April 18, 2024
NFL Can't Call Sunday Ticket Package A 'Luxury' At Trial
The NFL cannot describe its Sunday Ticket broadcast package as a "luxury" in an upcoming trial over class action antitrust claims that the television bundle is anti-competitive, a California federal judge has ruled.
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April 18, 2024
Google Judge Notes Broad Reach Of Texas Ad Tech Claims
A Texas federal judge pressed Google during oral arguments Thursday to explain why a coalition of state attorneys general can't sue over its dominance in advertising placement auction technology when they're representing not just companies suing separately, but consumers as well.
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April 18, 2024
Conn. Marketing Co. Says Competitor Poached Top Exec
Unlock Health Inc. hired away a senior executive at competing healthcare marketing firm Primacy LLC who arrived at his new job with trade secrets from his ex-employer and a plan to lure former clients and co-workers, according to a lawsuit in Connecticut federal court.
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April 18, 2024
AGs, Google Defend $700M Play Store Deal Ripped By Judge
A group of state attorneys general and Google defended the proposed $700 million settlement both sides brokered in the states' antitrust suit against the company in December, telling a San Francisco federal judge that the deal is consistent with Ninth Circuit precedent and releases only a limited set of claims against Google for a seven-year period.
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April 18, 2024
T-Mobile, Others Rip 'Hodgepodge' Forced Store Closings Suit
T-Mobile says it doesn't belong in a suit accusing it and another company of misleading store owners by promising it would open hundreds of new stores in the wake of its $26 billion merger with Sprint in 2020 only to turn around and shut the plaintiffs down.
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April 18, 2024
NCAA Rips 'Vague' Claims In Student-Athlete's Transfer Suit
The NCAA has urged a West Virginia federal judge to toss a suit from a 22-year-old student-athlete alleging the organization tried to prevent him from being eligible to play basketball following a mid-season transfer, saying the suit is too vague to pass muster.
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April 18, 2024
Would-Be Whistleblowers Drop ER Service Overbilling Claims
A North Carolina federal judge has granted two whistleblowers' request to drop their suit accusing a pair of healthcare companies and their affiliates of overcharging both state and federal Medicare and Medicaid programs for emergency services provided at multiple regional hospitals, dismissing the case without prejudice.
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April 18, 2024
NCAA Reforms Division I Transfer Rule, Upgrades NIL Policy
The NCAA Division I Council voted unanimously to allow certain transferring student-athletes to be immediately eligible to play on the teams of their new schools, following a multistate antitrust lawsuit challenging current restrictions.
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April 18, 2024
Deals Rumor Mill: Tapestry-Capri, StubHub IPO, Salesforce
The FTC is preparing to sue to block Tapestry's $8.5 billion takeover of designer brands' owner Capri, StubHub is eyeing a summer IPO at an estimated $16.5 billion valuation, and Salesforce is making a play to acquire data-management software firm Informatica. Here, Law360 breaks down these and other notable deal rumors from the past week.
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April 17, 2024
No Sanctions For Wordy Footnotes In Google Maps Case
A California federal judge will not sanction attorneys representing Google Maps customers in an antitrust action for their "numerous and excessively long footnotes" after the lawyers on Wednesday explained it wasn't a tactic for avoiding page limits and promised not to do it again.
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April 17, 2024
ISPs Seek Clearer Preemption In Feds' Net Neutrality Draft
With the Federal Communications Commission set to vote on net neutrality rules later this month, internet service providers are hoping the agency will clarify exactly how its orders trump state regulations on ISP conduct.
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April 17, 2024
RTX Investor Sues Brass In Del. For Better Antitrust Oversight
A shareholder of RTX has sued the aerospace and defense giant's current and former officers and directors in Delaware's Court of Chancery, accusing them of failing over a period of at least eight years to prevent antitrust violations in the company's hiring practices.
Editor's Picks
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Antitrust Cases And Issues To Watch In 2024
A string of cases testing the limits of antitrust law when it comes to Big Tech are among the developments practitioners are watching in 2024, as well as cases targeting information-sharing schemes and private equity investments and investigations of the real estate and alcoholic beverage industries.
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FTC, DOJ End 2023 With New Guidance, Lingering Challenges
Federal Trade Commission and U.S. Department of Justice competition enforcers are ending 2023 with a mixed track record full of failed criminal prosecutions and contentious civil enforcement, but capped by a crucial win for vertical enforcement and the issuance of new merger guidelines.
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New Merger Guidelines 'Want To Turn Back The Clock'
The Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission put two-plus years of Biden-era merger theories on paper Wednesday in draft guidelines they hope will help shape a fundamental transformation of U.S. antitrust enforcement, but experts say the guidance may run into the same limitations those theories already have encountered in court.
Expert Analysis
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Highlights From The 2024 ABA Antitrust Spring Meeting
U.S. merger enforcement and cartels figured heavily in this year's American Bar Association spring antitrust meeting, where one key takeaway included news that the Federal Trade Commission's anticipated changes to the Hart-Scott-Rodino form may be less dramatic than many originally feared, say attorneys at Freshfields.
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What FERC's Disclosure Demands Mean For Cos., Investors
Two recent Federal Energy Regulatory Commission orders reflect the commission's increasingly meticulous approach to reviewing corporate structures in applications for approval of proposed consolidations, acquisitions or changes in control — putting the onus on the regulated community to track and comply with ever-more-burdensome disclosure requirements, say attorneys at Willkie.
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Clemson's ACC Exit Fee Suit May Have Major Consequences
Clemson University's recent suit in South Carolina state court against the Atlantic Coast Conference, which challenges the ACC's $140 million exit fee and its ownership of member schools' media rights, would likely have enormous ramifications for ACC members in the event of a definitive court ruling, say William Sullivan and Alex Anderson at Pillsbury.
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FDIC Bank Merger Reviews Could Get More Burdensome
Recently proposed changes to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. bank merger review process would expand the agency's administrative processes, impose new evidentiary burdens on parties around competitive effects and other statutory approval factors, and continue the trend of long and unpredictable processing periods, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.
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Series
Whitewater Kayaking Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Whether it's seeing clients and their issues from a new perspective, or staying nimble in a moment of intense challenge, the lessons learned from whitewater kayaking transcend the rapids of a river and prepare attorneys for the courtroom and beyond, says Matthew Kent at Alston & Bird.
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Apple Ruling Offers Morsel Of Certainty On Litigation Funding
An English court's recent decision in Gutmann v. Apple, finding that a litigation funder could be paid via a damages award, offers a piece of guidance on the permissibility of such agreement terms amid the ongoing uncertainty around funded group litigation in the U.K., says Mohsin Patel at Factor Risk Management.
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This Earth Day, Consider How Your Firm Can Go Greener
As Earth Day approaches, law firms and attorneys should consider adopting more sustainable practices to reduce their carbon footprint — from minimizing single-use plastics to purchasing carbon offsets for air travel — which ultimately can also reduce costs for clients, say M’Lynn Phillips and Lisa Walters at IMS Legal Strategies.
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4 Ways AI Tools Can Improve Traditional Merger Analyses
Government officials at the American Bar Association's annual antitrust spring meeting last week reinforced the view that competition cases will increasingly rely on sophisticated data analysis, so companies will likewise need to use Big Tech quantitative techniques to improve traditional merger analyses, say Patrick Bajari, Gianmarco Calanchi and Tega Akati-Udi at Keystone.
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Blocked JetBlue-Spirit Deal Illustrates New Antitrust Approach
The U.S. Department of Justice’s recent successful block of a merger between JetBlue Airways and Spirit Airlines demonstrates antitrust enforcers’ updated and disparate approach to out-of-market benefits versus out-of-market harms, say Lisa Rumin and Anthony Ferrara at McDermott.
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The Pros And Cons Of NIST's Proposed March-In Framework
Recent comments for and against the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s proposed guidance on march-in rights — which permit the government to seize federally funded patents — highlight how the framework may promote competition, but could also pose a risk to contractors and universities, say Nick Lee and Paul Ragusa at Baker Botts.
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Opinion
Federal MDL Rule Benefits From Public Comments
The new Federal Rule of Civil Procedure concerning multidistrict litigation that was approved this week by the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules incorporates ideas from public comments that will aid both plaintiffs and defense attorneys — and if ultimately adopted, the rule should promote efficient, merits-driven MDL case management, say Robert Johnston and Gary Feldon at Hollingsworth.
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Practicing Law With Parkinson's Disease
This Parkinson’s Awareness Month, Adam Siegler at Greenberg Traurig discusses his experience working as a lawyer with Parkinson’s disease, sharing both lessons on how to cope with a diagnosis and advice for supporting colleagues who live with the disease.
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EU Ruling Exposes Sovereignty Fissures In Int'l Arbitration
The European Court of Justice's recent ruling that the U.K. had breached EU law by allowing an arbitral award to proceed underscores the diminished influence of EU jurisprudence in the U.K., hinting at the EU courts' increasingly nominal sway in international arbitration within jurisdictions that prize legal autonomy, says Josep Galvez at 4-5 Gray’s Inn.
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Opinion
Aviation Watch: Not All Airline Mergers Hurt The Public
The U.S. Department of Justice's actions to block recent attempted airline mergers have been touted as serving the interests of the consumers — but given the realities of the deregulated air travel market, a tie-up like the one proposed between JetBlue and Spirit might have been a win for the public, says Alan Hoffman, a retired attorney and aviation expert.
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The Merger Cases That Will Matter At ABA Antitrust Meeting
While the American Bar Association's Antitrust Spring Meeting this week will cover all types of competition law issues in the U.S. and abroad, expect the federal agencies' recent track record in merger enforcement to be a key area of focus on the official panels and in cocktail party chatter, say attorneys at Freshfields.