Competition

  • June 11, 2024

    Musk Drops Suit Against OpenAI On Eve Of Dismissal Hearing

    Elon Musk on Tuesday voluntarily dismissed his suit accusing former business partner and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman of betraying his promises to run the artificial intelligence operation as a nonprofit, a move that comes the day before a hearing was set on OpenAI's dismissal bid.

  • June 11, 2024

    NFL Sunday Ticket Monopoly Cost Fans $7B, Expert Testifies

    An economist testifying as an expert for the plaintiffs in a California federal trial over multibillion-dollar antitrust claims brought against the NFL by DirecTV Sunday Ticket subscribers said Tuesday that subscribers suffered over $7 billion in damages from DirecTV's alleged monopoly on the television package.

  • June 11, 2024

    Berkshire Unit Wants $20M Antitrust Loss Tossed Or New Trial

    A Berkshire Hathaway-owned construction supplier asked a Colorado federal judge Monday to reverse its $20 million jury trial loss to a smaller rival in the insulation material business, arguing that the damages are untethered to the alleged conduct, especially under a Tenth Circuit decision reviving the antitrust lawsuit.

  • June 11, 2024

    Listing Co. Urges Court To Ignore DOJ's Broker Deal Issues

    A multiple listing service that has struck a $3 million settlement over broker commission rules told a Massachusetts federal court the changes proposed by the U.S. Department of Justice go far beyond what's required and would create an antitrust problem in the real estate industry.

  • June 11, 2024

    Granulated Sugar Price-Fixing Cases Centralized In Minn.

    A collection of price-fixing suits against some of the country's biggest refined sugar manufacturers is being consolidated in Minnesota federal court, with the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation choosing the venue over federal courts in New York.

  • June 11, 2024

    4 More States Join DOJ's Antitrust Suit Against Apple

    The attorneys general of Washington, Massachusetts, Nevada and Indiana on Tuesday became the latest to join the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust lawsuit in New Jersey federal court claiming Apple is monopolizing the smartphone market.

  • June 11, 2024

    PC Gaming Giant Valve Faces £656M Action For Overcharging

    Valve Corp., owner of the world's largest video game distribution platform, Steam, has been hit with a proposed £656 million ($836 million) class action for allegedly overcharging 14 million PC gamers in the U.K., the digital rights campaigner filing the claim announced Wednesday.

  • June 11, 2024

    Biz Groups Urge 6th Circ. To Put Net Neutrality On Hold

    Industry groups want the Sixth Circuit to put the Federal Communications Commission's net neutrality rules on hold while they are litigated and to reject an FCC bid to move numerous consolidated challenges to the D.C. Circuit.

  • June 11, 2024

    Deutsche Telekom Owed €1.8M In EU Fine Overcharge Interest

    The European Union's executive branch is on the hook to Deutsche Telekom for €1.75 million in interest for an antitrust fine overcharge after the bloc's high court on Tuesday rejected an appeal contesting lower court findings that there is an "absolute, unconditional obligation" to pay that interest.

  • June 11, 2024

    FTC Gets Short Extension On Novant Deal Pause

    A North Carolina federal court Tuesday extended an order preventing Novant Health from closing its $320 million deal for a pair of hospitals in the state by 10 days to give the Federal Trade Commission time to ask the Fourth Circuit to pause the transaction.

  • June 11, 2024

    Cigar Co. Can Keep Using Contested 'Dragon' Name For Now

    A tobacco company facing a rival's copyright infringement lawsuit over its "Year of the Dragon" cigar boxes can keep using the phrase on products, a Florida federal judge ruled, declining to say the plaintiff is the true owner of the phrase because the company hasn't secured the trademark just yet.

  • June 11, 2024

    10 Firms Seek $13M Fee For Effexor Antitrust Deal

    Ten law firms asked a New Jersey federal judge on Monday to award $13 million in counsel fees and an additional $2.1 million in costs for representing direct buyers in a $39 million settlement with Pfizer Inc. unit Wyeth over an alleged scheme to delay generic competition for the antidepressant drug Effexor XR.

  • June 11, 2024

    Immigration Firm Says Rival Poached Workers And Stole TM

    A Washington immigration law firm specializing in visas for domestic violence and sex trafficking victims is accusing a competing Texas firm of poaching its employees and stealing a Spanish phrase it registered a trademark for — "Arreglar sin salir!" — which translates to "fix without leaving."

  • June 10, 2024

    5 Teva Inhaler Patents Kicked Out Of Orange Book

    A New Jersey federal judge said Monday that a handful of patents covering Teva-brand asthma inhalers were "improperly listed in the Orange Book," a legal holding that U.S. Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan quickly took some credit for.

  • June 10, 2024

    Pork Producers Look To Put A Fork In Price-Fixing Claims

    Pork producers accused of colluding to diminish supply and inflate prices in sprawling multidistrict litigation have urged a Minnesota federal court to toss all remaining buyers' claims against them, saying statistical reports they use are lawful and their accusers' complaints are untimely.

  • June 10, 2024

    Fox Views NFL Sunday Ticket As 'Existential' Threat, Jury Told

    A retired executive with Fox Sports testified Monday in a trial over multibillion-dollar antitrust claims brought against the NFL by Sunday Ticket subscribers that his network asked the league to agree to specific Sunday Ticket pricing because it viewed the DirecTV television package as an "existential" threat.

  • June 10, 2024

    Rehab Clinics Add To MultiPlan Insurance Fixing Pile-On

    Addiction treatment providers sued MultiPlan, Aetna, Cigna, UnitedHealth and Elevance Friday and Saturday in 14 separate New York federal court complaints that appear to be the first to add substance abuse disorder-specific allegations to the cases pegging MultiPlan at the center of a scheme to suppress insurer payouts.

  • June 10, 2024

    14 Tire Price-Fixing Cases Consolidated In Ohio

    Bridgestone, Goodyear, Michelin and other tire companies will be fighting a growing number of replacement tire price-fixing proposed class actions in Ohio federal court under a Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation order Friday consolidating 14 such lawsuits and identifying 21 more that may follow suit.

  • June 10, 2024

    Health Data Co. Says Rival's Request Risks Patient Security

    A healthcare data company pushed back against claims in Maryland federal court that it blocks a rival's access to nursing home patient data used to identify potential complications, saying the rival is asking to disable security measures that prevent attacks on its system.

  • June 10, 2024

    Apple IPhone Antitrust MDL Heads To NJ, Where DOJ Is Suing

    Apple customers accusing the company of locking in iPhone users through anticompetitive agreements will have their cases consolidated in New Jersey, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation ruled Friday, finding the parties can coordinate with the U.S. Department of Justice's enforcement action there to avoid duplicative discovery and inconsistent rulings.

  • June 10, 2024

    'Junk Fee' Suit Against Hilton Shipped Back To State Court

    A D.C. federal judge has sent back to state court a traveler advocacy group's lawsuit accusing Hilton of tricking hotel guests into paying "junk fees" late in the booking process, rejecting the hotel chain's bid to litigate the proposed class action in federal court.

  • June 10, 2024

    Contractor Seeks Win In Protest Of $186M In DOD Fuel Deals

    A bid protester has urged the Court of Federal Claims to rule that the Defense Logistics Agency wrongly ignored signs of misconduct from two companies awarded $186 million in fuel delivery deals in Syria and Iraq, and disqualify the companies.

  • June 10, 2024

    Drugmakers Look To Nix Non-Insulin Claims From AG Suit

    Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly and Sanofi-Aventis asked the federal judge overseeing a diabetes drug price-fixing multidistrict litigation to rule for drugmakers on Mississippi's claims the pricing for GLP-1s is illegal, saying in a brief that the drugs are under patent and too new to be included in the insulin-pricing suit.

  • June 10, 2024

    House Dems Push For More Info On Sports Streaming Venture

    A pair of House Democrats are pushing The Walt Disney Co., Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery for more information on their planned joint streaming venture, saying the companies' previous response did not assuage their concerns about competition, consumer protection and pricing.

  • June 10, 2024

    Aircraft Engine Co. Avco Wants Ex-Atty Sanctions Bid Cut

    A dispute over deposition scheduling in a sanctions case filed in Pennsylvania federal court by a lawyer who formerly represented an aircraft company has led to accusations of attorneys acting in bad faith to obstruct the case and complaints of a lack of professional courtesy.

Expert Analysis

  • What TikTok's Race Against The Clock Teaches Chinese Firms

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    The Biden administration's recent divestiture deadline on TikTok parent ByteDance provides useful information for other China-based companies looking to do business in the U.S., including the need to keep products for each market separate and implement firewalls at the design stage, says Richard Lomuscio at Stinson.

  • Updated Federal Rules Can Improve Product Liability MDLs

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    The recent amendment of a federal evidence rule regarding expert testimony and the proposal of a civil rule on managing early discovery in multidistrict legislation hold great promise for promoting the uniform and efficient processes that high-stakes product liability cases particularly need, say Alan Klein and William Heaston at Duane Morris.

  • Lean Into The 'Great Restoration' To Retain Legal Talent

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    As the “great resignation,” in which employees voluntarily left their jobs in droves, has largely dissipated, legal employers should now work toward the idea of a “great restoration,” adopting strategies to effectively hire, onboard and retain top legal talent, says Molly McGrath at Hiring & Empowering Solutions.

  • Live Nation May Shake It Off In A Long Game With The DOJ

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    Don't expect a swift resolution in the U.S. Department of Justice's case against Live Nation, but a long litigation, with the company likely to represent itself as the creator of a competitive ecosystem, and the government faced with explaining how the ticketing giant formed under its watch, say Thomas Kliebhan and Taylor Hixon at GRSM50.

  • NCAA Settlement May End The NIL Model As We Know It

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    The recent House v. NCAA settlement in California federal court, in which the NCAA agreed to allow schools to directly pay March Madness television revenue to their athletes, may send outside name, image and likeness collectives in-house, says Mike Ingersoll at Womble Bond.

  • Opinion

    The FTC And DOJ Should Backtrack On RealPage

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    The antitrust agencies ought to reverse course on their enforcement actions against RealPage, which are based on a faulty legal premise, risk further property shortages and threaten the use of algorithms that are central to the U.S. economy, says Thomas Stratmann at George Mason University.

  • Series

    Fishing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Atop the list of ways fishing makes me a better lawyer is the relief it offers from the chronic stress of a demanding caseload, but it has also improved my listening skills and patience, and has served as an exceptional setting for building earnest relationships, says Steven DeGeorge​​​​​​​ at Robinson Bradshaw.

  • Exploring Alternatives To Noncompetes Ahead Of FTC Ban

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    Ahead of the Sept. 4 effective date for the Federal Trade Commission's noncompete ban, employers should seek new ways to protect their proprietary and other sensitive information, including by revising existing confidentiality and nondisclosure agreements, says Harvey Linder at Culhane.

  • A Healthier Legal Industry Starts With Emotional Intelligence

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    The legal profession has long been plagued by high rates of mental health issues, in part due to attorneys’ early training and broader societal stereotypes — but developing one’s emotional intelligence is one way to foster positive change, collectively and individually, says attorney Esperanza Franco.

  • To Make Your Legal Writing Clear, Emulate A Master Chef

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    To deliver clear and effective written advocacy, lawyers should follow the model of a fine dining chef — seasoning a foundation of pure facts with punchy descriptors, spicing it up with analogies, refining the recipe and trimming the fat — thus catering to a sophisticated audience of decision-makers, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.

  • Circuit Judge Writes An Opinion, AI Helps: What Now?

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    Last week's Eleventh Circuit opinion in Snell v. United Specialty Insurance, notable for a concurrence outlining the use of artificial intelligence to evaluate a term's common meaning, is hopefully the first step toward developing a coherent basis for the judiciary's generative AI use, says David Zaslowsky at Baker McKenzie.

  • A Look At M&A Conditions After FTC's Exxon-Pioneer Nod

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    The Federal Trade Commission's recent consent decree imposing several conditions on Exxon Mobil's acquisition of Pioneer Natural Resources helps illustrate key points about the current merger enforcement environment, including the probability of further investigations in the energy and pharmaceutical sectors, say Ryan Quillian and John Kendrick at Covington.

  • Attys Beware 2 Commonly Overlooked NIL Contract Issues

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    As name, image and likeness deals dominate high school and collegiate sports, preserving a client's NCAA eligibility should be a top priority, so lawyers should understand the potentially damaging contract provisions they may encounter when reviewing an agreement, says Paula Nagarajan at Arnall Golden.

  • FTC Theories Of Harm After Anesthesia Co. Ruling

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    As Federal Trade Commission litigation against U.S. Anesthesia Partners proceeds following a Texas federal court's recent decision to dismiss a private equity sponsor from the suit, the case attempts to incorporate and advance some of the commission's theories of competitive harm from the final 2023 Merger Guidelines, say attorneys at Mintz.

  • FTC Focus: Exploring The Meaning Of Orange Book Letters

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    The Federal Trade Commission recently announced an expansion of its campaign to promote competition by targeting pharmaceutical manufacturers' improper Orange Book patent listings, but there is a question of whether and how this helps generic entrants, say Colin Kass and David Munkittrick at Proskauer.

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