Competition

  • March 14, 2024

    FTC Says Consolidation Endangering Infant-Formula Market

    The Federal Trade Commission has found the country's small number of baby formula manufacturers and the effects of a federal nutrition program contributed to shortages in 2022 and are still making the supply chain vulnerable to disruption.

  • March 14, 2024

    Axon, Cities Fight Over Producing Material From FTC Case

    Axon Enterprise is sparring with municipalities accusing the police equipment maker of monopolizing the Taser and body camera markets, with the local governments pushing for what Axon described as the "premature and improper" production of discovery from the Federal Trade Commission's since-abandoned case.

  • March 14, 2024

    Game Developer Seeks Class Cert. In Valve Antitrust Case

    Developer Wolfire Games is asking a Seattle federal judge for class certification in its consolidated antitrust suit against online game seller Valve, saying discovery has brought abundant evidence that the platform uses its most-favored-nation clause to stifle competition and maintain monopoly power.

  • March 14, 2024

    Koch Can't Bring $30M Claim Against Canada Under NAFTA

    Canada prevailed in a $30 million arbitration brought by Koch Industries over the province of Ontario's decision to cancel a cap-and-trade program in 2018, securing dismissal of the claim on jurisdictional grounds.

  • March 14, 2024

    Water Treatment Co. Must Face Rival's Trade Secrets Suit

    A Tennessee federal judge has found that certain issues in a trade secrets suit against industrial water treatment service company ChemTreat need to go before a jury, shooting down arguments including that no trade secret was adequately identified.

  • March 14, 2024

    Mnuchin Says He's Forming Investor Group To Buy TikTok

    Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Thursday he is forming an investor group to buy TikTok, one day after a measure to separate the social media platform from its Chinese owners passed the House.

  • March 14, 2024

    9th Circ. Is Asked To Revive LegalForce's TM Dispute

    Intellectual property firm LegalForce RAPC Worldwide PC has taken its trademark battle with a Japanese company over the brand "LegalForce" to the Ninth Circuit, arguing in its appeal that a federal statute dictates that infringement can occur through equity sales to investors.

  • March 14, 2024

    Drug Wholesalers Want Preliminary OK On $265M Sandoz Deal

    A group of direct purchasers of generic drugs has asked a Pennsylvania federal court for approval of a $265 million settlement with Swiss drugmaker Sandoz over allegations of federal antitrust violations.

  • March 14, 2024

    Italy Fines TikTok €10M For Harmful Content

    Italy's antitrust authority fined TikTok €10 million ($11 million) on Thursday for failing to protect children from potentially dangerous content on the platform.

  • March 14, 2024

    Biden Comes Out Against $14.9B US Steel-Nippon Merger

    President Joe Biden came out in opposition of U.S. Steel's planned $14.9 billion merger with Japan's Nippon Steel Corp. on Thursday, echoing lawmakers who have expressed concerns about the sale of an American institution to a foreign power. 

  • March 14, 2024

    UK Law Change Threatens PE Firm's Newspaper Group Bid

    The government has set out rule changes that would prevent foreign states from owning British newspapers and other print media, a move that could block the takeover of The Daily Telegraph newspaper and The Spectator news magazine by RedBird IMI, an Abu Dhabi-backed private equity firm.

  • March 13, 2024

    TriZetto's $200M Jury Awards Thrown Out In Syntel Dispute

    A New York federal judge on Wednesday vacated roughly $200 million in damages awards Cognizant affiliate TriZetto won in a trade secret misappropriation and copyright infringement suit against Syntel, ruling that the awards were improperly calculated.

  • March 13, 2024

    Amazon Ducks Consumers' 'Buy Box'-Shipping Antitrust Suit

    Amazon.com is facing one less consumer antitrust suit after a Seattle federal judge said Wednesday that Prime members failed to define the relevant market or explain how they were harmed by policies tying placement of the "Buy Box" feature with sellers paying for its shipping services and cannot fix the shortcomings of their complaint.

  • March 13, 2024

    Epic Says Apple Is 'Blatantly' Violating App Store Order

    Epic Games told a California federal court on Wednesday that Apple is "blatantly" violating an order issued under state law barring anti-steering rules in the App Store by imposing new fees and restrictions that make linking to outside payment methods effectively impossible.

  • March 13, 2024

    Robinhood Says Investors Shouldn't Get Discovery Extension

    Trading platform Robinhood has told a Florida federal court that it should not be required to produce documents requested by investors in their "eleventh hour" motion to extend discovery in a suit alleging investors were damaged when Robinhood suspended purchases of so-called meme stocks to avoid a purported liquidity problem.

  • March 13, 2024

    Cherry IP Deception Claims Would Inflame Jury, Canada Says

    The Canadian government has told a Washington federal judge that jurors should not hear allegations that its IP licenser deceived the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in a trial against Washington fruit growers it claims rebranded a unique Canadian sweet cherry variety as their own, citing the "inflammatory" nature of the growers' counterclaim.

  • March 13, 2024

    Versata Wants Axed $105M Ford Verdict Revived Or Expanded

    Versata Software has urged the Federal Circuit to undo a Michigan federal judge's decision erasing a nearly $105 million trade secrets and breach of contract verdict it won against Ford, and argued that it was wrongly barred from presenting damages theories seeking up to $1.3 billion.

  • March 13, 2024

    Google Calls DOJ's 'Fake Privilege' Docs Citation 'Misleading'

    The D.C. federal judge weighing the fate of Google's search business should pay no heed to discussions, cited by the Justice Department, from company lawyers in a separate case of "fake privilege" hiding otherwise discoverable evidence, Google has said.

  • March 13, 2024

    AI Auto Damage-Assessing Giant Accused Of Monopoly

    Tractable Inc. is hitting back at CCC Intelligent Solutions with counterclaims in an ongoing trade secrets spat, alleging in a new motion CCC has leveraged its dominant share of the auto collision-assessment market to stifle consumer choice and increase prices in violation of antitrust laws.

  • March 13, 2024

    Meta's 'Expense & Annoyance' Not Enough To Stop FTC Tweak

    A D.C. Circuit panel refused late Tuesday to temporarily block proposed Federal Trade Commission tweaks to a $5 billion data privacy settlement aimed at blocking Meta's monetization of children's data — finding the social media giant has not shown it is likely to succeed in its appeal of the changes, nor that it will suffer irreparable harm.

  • March 13, 2024

    Jury Must Weigh Willfulness In Secrets Case, Calif. Court Says

    A California state appellate court has found a jury will have to decide whether a former director at Applied Medical Distribution Corp. willfully misappropriated trade secrets from his former employer.

  • March 13, 2024

    HP Says It's Upfront About Blocking Ink Cartridges

    HP has urged an Illinois federal judge to throw out consumers' claims that it has a monopoly over the replacement-ink cartridge market and used software updates to block consumers from using cheaper rival cartridges in HP printers, saying it "goes to great lengths" to disclose that its printers are intended to work only with cartridges that have an HP security chip.

  • March 13, 2024

    FTC Bid To Block Kroger's $25B Albertsons Deal Set For Aug.

    An Oregon federal court has scheduled an August hearing on the Federal Trade Commission's challenge of Kroger's planned $24.6 billion purchase of fellow grocery store giant Albertsons, a deal also under attack by state enforcers in Washington and Colorado.

  • March 13, 2024

    Ex-VP's 'Dereliction' Provokes Default Judgment As Sanction

    An exasperated judge in North Carolina gave an HVAC company an early win by default against a former executive accused of stealing trade secrets, calling his failure to meet discovery demands "dereliction" and granting his former employer's request for sanctions as a result.

  • March 13, 2024

    40-Nation Noncompete Must Be Nixed, Conn. Trader Says

    A Connecticut trader who quit his job at Rowayton-based Graham Capital Management LP is seeking a quick win on arguments that his two-year noncompete agreement, which he says bans him from working in more than 40 nations worldwide, is too broad to be enforced under Nutmeg State law.

Expert Analysis

  • Key Elements Of The Proposed Credit Card Competition Act

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    Attorneys at Troutman Pepper examine the most noteworthy provisions in the recently proposed Credit Card Competition Act, including changes to payment card network access, Federal Reserve Board review, who would qualify as a covered institution, and routing restrictions.

  • Opinion

    Address The Data Monopoly, Otherwise Tech Giants Control AI

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    It is likely that we will experience a severe monopoly on artificial intelligence systems and patents by the largest players in the tech industry, so the way we treat data needs to change, whether through the legislature, the courts or tech companies, says Pranav Katti at Barclay Damon.

  • Info Exchanges Must Stay Inside Now-Invisible Antitrust Lines

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    While the antitrust agencies recently withdrew long-standing enforcement policy statements for being "overly permissive" on information exchanges, we should not assume that all information exchanges are inherently suspect — they are still permissible if carefully constructed and vigorously managed, say attorneys at Nelson Mullins.

  • Twitter Legal Fees Suit Offers Crash Course In Billing Ethics

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    X Corp.'s suit alleging that Wachtell grossly inflated its fees in the final days of Elon Musk’s Twitter acquisition provides a case study in how firms should protect their reputations by hewing to ethical billing practices and the high standards for professional conduct that govern attorney-client relationships, says Lourdes Fuentes at Karta Legal.

  • Amgen-Horizon Deal May Signal FTC's Return To Bargaining

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    The Federal Trade Commission's recent settlement of its challenge to Amgen's proposed acquisition of Horizon Therapeutics marks the latest in a string of midlitigation settlements, and may signal that competition regulators are more inclined toward such negotiations following recent litigation losses, say attorneys at Freshfields.

  • EU Antitrust Rules Set To Pose Challenges To US Businesses

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    With stark differences between U.S. and European Union antitrust regimes, and potential for the forthcoming EU guidelines to turbocharge the commission's appetite for intervention, it is important that U.S. businesses with activities in the region take note of the reforms, say Andrea Pomana and Sarah Wilks at Mayer Brown.

  • ABA's Money-Laundering Resolution Is A Balancing Act

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    While the American Bar Association’s recently passed resolution recognizes a lawyer's duty to discontinue representation that could facilitate money laundering and other fraudulent activity, it preserves, at least for now, the delicate balance of judicial, state-based regulation of the legal profession and the sanctity of the attorney-client relationship, say attorneys at Ballard Spahr.

  • Behind The Economics Of The DOJ's Case Against Google

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    Ahead of the U.S. v. Google search monopolization case set for trial in D.C. federal court Tuesday, economist Tessie LiJu Su discusses bundling, exclusive dealing, and the allegations of anti-competitive practices against the technology giant.

  • 2 High Court Cases Could Upend Administrative Law Bedrock

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    Next term, the U.S. Supreme Court will be deciding two cases likely to change the nature and shape of agency-facing litigation in perpetuity, and while one will clarify or overturn Chevron, far more is at stake in the other, say Dan Wolff and Henry Leung at Crowell & Moring.

  • Law Firm Professional Development Steps To Thrive In AI Era

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    As generative artificial intelligence tools rapidly evolve, professional development leaders are instrumental in preparing law firms for the paradigm shifts ahead, and should consider three strategies to help empower legal talent with the skills required to succeed in an increasingly complex technological landscape, say Steve Gluckman and Anusia Gillespie at SkillBurst Interactive.

  • HHS Neuromonitoring Advisory May Have Broad Relevance

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    The Health Department Office of Inspector General's recent advisory opinion rejecting a neuromonitoring service's proposal for a shell arrangement isn't surprising, but it could be a harbinger of more warnings against problematic joint venture arrangements to come, says Mary Kohler at Kohler Health Law.

  • Merger Proposals Reflect Agency Leaders' Antitrust Principles

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    Attorneys at Covington trace the recently proposed Hart-Scott-Rodino and merger guidelines changes to certain foundational concerns of the Federal Trade Commission and U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division leadership, including issues related to concentration associated with horizontal and vertical mergers.

  • The Basics Of Being A Knowledge Management Attorney

    Excerpt from Practical Guidance
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    Michael Lehet at Ogletree Deakins discusses the role of knowledge management attorneys at law firms, the common tasks they perform and practical tips for lawyers who may be considering becoming one.

  • Challenging Standing In Antitrust Classes: The Uninjured

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    In virtually every antitrust class action, parties at the certification phase disagree about whether the proposed class includes uninjured members, but the goals of Rule 23 and judicial economy are best served by synthesizing two distinct approaches circuit courts take on this issue, say Michael Hamburger and Holly Tao at White & Case.

  • How 'Purely Legal' Issues Ruling Applies To Rule 12 Motions

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent Dupree v. Younger holding that purely legal issues resolved on summary judgment need not be reraised in post-trial motions guides litigators on when to preserve certain arguments for appeal, but raises the question of how Rule 12(b) and (c) motion denials will be affected, say Blaine Evanson and Jeremy Christiansen at Gibson Dunn.

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