Overall
Key cases
Industries
Intellectual Property
Labor & Employment
Corporate
Practice Areas
Competition
-
January 2, 2013
Gov. Hits NCAA With Antitrust Suit Over Penn State Sanctions
Pennsylvania's governor lashed out Wednesday at the National Collegiate Athletic Association with a lawsuit claiming the organization’s sanctions against Pennsylvania State University violated antitrust laws and would cause dire economic harm to both the school and the state’s citizens.
-
December 20, 2012
Deutsche Bahn Seeks Reported $993M In Price-Fixing Suit
German state railway operator Deutsche Bahn AG has sued four track suppliers, including steel giant ThyssenKrupp AG, on allegations of price-fixing and is seeking damages of a reported €750 million ($993 million), according to Thursday news reports.
-
December 20, 2012
Select Comfort Sues Insurer For Sleepy's Suit Coverage
Sentry Insurance was hit with a lawsuit in Minnesota federal court Thursday alleging it broke its duty to defend mattress company Select Comfort Corp. in a $30 million competition suit filed by rival Sleepy's LLC.
-
December 20, 2012
EU Regulator To Probe Syniverse's $694M Mach Acquisition
The European Commission on Thursday launched an in-depth probe into mobile communications company Syniverse Technologies Inc.’s €550 million ($693.5 million) acquisition of Luxembourg-based telecommunications firm Mach, citing concerns of decreased competition in various roaming technology markets.
-
December 19, 2012
Expect More Libor Criminal Cases, Experts Say
U.S. criminal charges filed against two former UBS AG traders for their roles in an alleged widespread conspiracy to rig global interest rates could be a harbinger of future criminal indictments against traders or even senior executives at banks for their roles in the scandal, several attorneys said Wednesday.
-
December 19, 2012
Ohio State Bookstore Accuses Publishers Of Monopoly Threats
An Ohio State University bookstore hit textbook publishing companies Cengage Learning Inc. and Pearson Education Inc. with a federal antitrust lawsuit Tuesday, saying the publishers used monopoly power to allege unspecified copyright violations and demand improper payoffs for access to textbooks.
-
December 19, 2012
$330M Tech Co. Tie-Up Will Create 'Near-Monopoly,' FTC Says
The Federal Trade Commission has lodged a complaint to block Integrated Device Technology Inc.'s proposed $330 million purchase of PLX Technology Inc., saying Tuesday that the deal would give the combined company too much control over the market for certain computer circuits.
-
December 19, 2012
Pa. Hospital Hits Cardinal, Owens & Minor With Antitrust Suit
A Pennsylvania hospital operator launched a putative class action in federal court Tuesday against Cardinal Health Inc. and Owens & Minor Inc, alleging the firms engaged in a monopolistic scheme to get small hospitals to purchase sutures, stitches and similar merchandise only from them.
-
December 17, 2012
Promoter Calls Foul On NCAA Over Canceled Tournaments
A Kentucky-based organizer and promoter of middle and high school basketball tournaments hit the National Collegiate Athletic Association with an antitrust suit Thursday, claiming it suffered significant damages when the NCAA decided the tournaments violated the association's recruiting rules.
-
December 17, 2012
NHL Files Suit As Players Move Toward Decertifying Union
Members of the NHL Players' Association reportedly have until Thursday to vote on whether to grant its executive board the authority to dissolve the union after the NHL, in a preemptive maneuver, filed a class action in New York seeking a declaration that its ongoing lockout is legal.
-
December 14, 2012
La. Man Charged With Bribery In $3.2M Afghanistan Contract
Federal prosecutors in Louisiana on Wednesday charged the former vice president of a U.S. military construction contractor with accepting bribes in exchange for awarding a $3.2 million subcontract to help repair an airfield in Afghanistan.
-
December 14, 2012
Dun & Bradstreet Exploits Credit Monopoly, Suit Says
Dun & Bradstreet Inc. was hit Thursday with a class action alleging it abuses its dominant position in the credit profile market to force small businesses to purchase its line of credit monitoring products and uses a variety of unfair tactics to drive up sales.
-
December 14, 2012
Georgia-Pacific, Others Face Antitrust Suit Over Drywall Prices
Drywall installer Sierra Drywall Systems Inc. hit Georgia-Pacific LLC, American Gypsum Company LLC, and seven other defendants with a putative class action in Chicago on Thursday, accusing them of conspiring to jack up drywall prices.
-
December 13, 2012
Siemens Sued For $1.5B Over Alleged Mexican Oil Bribes
Petroleos Mexicanos, Mexico’s state-owned oil company, hit Siemens AG with a $1.5 billion suit filed in New York federal court Wednesday, alleging the conglomerate bribed government officials to secure a lucrative refinery construction contract as part of a criminal scheme.
-
December 11, 2012
DOJ, NY AG Sue To Unwind NYC Tour Bus Monopoly
The U.S. Department of Justice sued two New York City bus operators Tuesday to unwind a joint venture giving the duo a monopoly over the city's hop-on, hop-off tour bus market that allowed the companies to hike prices.
-
December 10, 2012
Millennium Labs Sues Insurers Over Kickback Suit Coverage
Drug-screening company Millennium Laboratories, Inc. sued two insurance companies in California federal court Friday, claiming they wrongfully refused to pay for Millennium’s counterclaim defense in three lawsuits it filed against its competitors alleging they used kickbacks and confidential information to steal its customers.
-
December 10, 2012
Cab Operators Sue NYC Over Plan To Make Nissan Official Taxi
New York City taxi operators have sued the city over a plan to make a Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. vehicle the official taxicab in the city, saying authorities have exceeded their powers by handing the automaker a sole-source contract that would authorize only Nissans as taxicabs.
-
December 6, 2012
Cardinal, Owens & Minor Hit With $200M Antitrust Suit
A specialty distributor of wound-closure products hit Cardinal Health Inc. and Owens & Minor Inc. with a $200 million antitrust lawsuit Wednesday, accusing the firms of engaging in predatory pricing and illegally penalizing customers who didn’t buy their sutures, stitches and similar merchandise.
-
December 5, 2012
US Shipping Law Supports Antitrust Breaches, Suit Says
Purchasers of ocean shipping services hit the U.S. with a proposed class action in Hawaii federal court last week, alleging that a law meant to protect American shippers from foreign rivals let purchasers fall prey to the anti-competitive behavior of two shipping companies.
-
December 4, 2012
Appeals Highlight EU Battle Over Cartel Document Access
Three German car insurance companies have challenged the European Commission's refusal to turn over documents from its auto-glass cartel investigation, underscoring the watchdog's struggle to shield information it gathers during cartel probes without running afoul of the European Union's transparency rules.
Expert Analysis
-
Litigation Support At A Crossroads
Despite recession-driven cost pressures that have resulted in the downsizing of nonlawyer personnel at law firms, many litigation support departments are growing. In a recent survey, half of respondents indicated that their function has grown in size in the past three years, and more than half of respondents indicated that current staffing levels are inadequate for the projected needs of the coming year, say experts at Epiq Systems and Georgetown University Law Center.
-
The Business End Of Supreme Court's Current Term
This term marks a continuation of the Roberts court trend of close attention to business issues. From affirmative action and class actions to tort litigation, government enforcement and intellectual property, almost one half of this term’s argued cases are of interest to the business community, say Cliff Sloan and David Foster of Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP.
-
An Insider’s View Of The FCPA Resource Guide
Recent commentary from the deputy chief of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, Fraud Section, suggests that the government’s FCPA resource guide — rather than being an outgrowth of mounting criticism from the business community, defense bar and other legal commentators concerning the FCPA’s troubling ambiguity and opaque enforcement policies — was more a product of international treaty obligations, says Caryn Trombino of Perkins Coie LLP.
-
Takeaways From The Microsoft Internet Explorer Saga
The European Commission recently imposed a fine on Microsoft Corp. of $730 million for failure to abide by a commitment made in 2009 to make a browser-choice screen available to PC users. The commission's huge fine sends a strong signal to companies that failure to comply with the terms of a settlement will not be tolerated in any circumstance, say attorneys with McDermott Will & Emery LLP.
-
Higbee May Escalate Unfair Competition Claims In Calif.
Though the California Court of Appeal warned against the revival of shakedown lawsuits, its decision in Law Offices of Mathew Higbee v. Expungement Assistance Services may nonetheless trigger a blunderbuss of suits between business competitors seeking to police each other’s activities, say Seth Gerber and Candace Frazier of Bingham McCutchen LLP.
-
How The Belgacom Ruling Will Impact Atty Privilege In EU
The recent Brussels Court of Appeal ruling in Belgacom Group represents an important rebuke to the presumption of the European Court of Justice's Akzo ruling that in-house counsels are insufficiently independent to enjoy the attorney-client and related privileges, say Donald Hawthorne and Timothy Hirsch of Axinn Veltrop & Harkrider LLP.
-
Supreme Court Tames Class Action Frankenstein's Monster
The unanimous U.S. Supreme Court decision in Standard Fire Insurance Co. v. Knowles will be praised by class action defense counsel as comporting with the congressional intent of the Class Action Fairness Act and ramifying the pleading strategies used by putative class representatives to maximize the litigation leverage of the "Frankenstein's monster" created by class actions, say attorneys with Fulbright & Jaworski LLP.
-
How To Read FTC's Recent Letter To Okla. Hospital
Recently, the Federal Trade Commission has issued a letter to a physician-hospital organization in Norman, Okla., setting out its analysis of how the organization's business plan violated the federal antitrust laws. The letter identifies important issues for provider-controlled networks looking to implement a clinical integration program but also leaves several issues unaddressed, says Mark Botti of Squire Sanders LLP.
-
Where Privilege Protection Ends In Internal Investigations
Internal investigations by counsel into potentially illegal corporate conduct are generally considered to be protected by the attorney-client privilege and attorney work-product doctrine. It is less clear whether work that is unconnected or tangentially connected to such an investigation, including internal audits or anti-corruption risk assessments, may be conducted in a way that preserves privilege protections, say attorneys with Paul Hastings LLP.
-
Do SEP Holders Seeking Injunctions Violate Section 2?
Recent U.S. Department of Justice speeches and statements indicate that the DOJ may be searching for ways to enforce a policy of using Section 2 of the Sherman Act to discourage standard essential patent holders who license their patents on fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms from seeking injunctive relief against alleged infringers. This would be a significant development in its regulatory agenda, says Wendy Fu of Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP.