Competition

April 29, 2025
Duke Energy Rival Tells Justices Not To Review Monopoly Suit

Independent power producer NTE Energy is urging the U.S. Supreme Court not to review a decision that revived its monopoly suit against Duke Energy, saying the North Carolina-based company is asking the justices to issue an advisory opinion answering a hypothetical question.
April 29, 2025
FTC Defends John Deere Right-To-Repair Suit

Farm machinery-maker Deere & Co. is trying to get out of an FTC enforcement action using the same arguments that didn't help it escape multidistrict litigation accusing the company of breaking antitrust laws by restricting access to repair services, the government says.
April 29, 2025
Judge Mulls If Google Could Still Vie To Be Default Search

A D.C. federal judge probed potential middle grounds Tuesday for how to give Google's search engine rivals a leg up against the company's monopoly, asking how to avoid a "duopoly" with Microsoft and if Google might be permitted to continue paying browsers and phonemakers for default placement.
April 29, 2025
Pork Producers Want Ruling Tossed Over Clerk's Conduct

Pork producers and Agri Stats Inc., which are defending themselves against a major price-fixing suit, are calling on the Minnesota federal judge overseeing the case to recuse himself and vacate his recent rulings, accusing one of his clerks of having inappropriate relationships with plaintiffs' attorneys in a new filing this week.
April 29, 2025
CRT Buyers Want $3.7B In Damages After Price-Fixing Default

Groups of buyers in long-running litigation over an alleged conspiracy to fix cathode ray tube prices asked a California federal court for $3.7 billion in damages after a default judgment against Chinese electronics company Irico Group for failing to preserve evidence.
April 29, 2025
DoorDash, Grubhub Settle Fee Cap Fight With NYC

DoorDash, Grubhub and Uber Eats have reached a settlement in a case accusing New York City officials of passing legislation that unconstitutionally capped fees the delivery apps could charge restaurants, prompting a federal judge to sign off on a joint stipulation and order Monday that stayed the matter pending final resolution.
April 29, 2025
Meta Looks To Delete User Antitrust Claims Over Pay For Data

Meta urged a California federal court Monday to end antitrust claims from consumers alleging they should be paid for their data, saying flawed expert theories that doomed class certification also sink the entire case for the remaining individual plaintiffs.
April 29, 2025
Sullivan M&A Chief Sees Opportunities Amid Tariff Turmoil

After a rocky start to 2025, the mergers and acquisitions landscape is grappling with economic volatility, shifting trade policies and a complex regulatory environment. But even in a "choppy" market, there are always deals to be made, says Melissa Sawyer, global head of Sullivan & Cromwell LLP's M&A group and co-head of its corporate governance practice.
April 29, 2025
Boston Seafood Co. Says Salmon Exec Stole Trade Secrets

A former C-suite executive and head of salmon accounts at a Boston-area seafood distributor spent months emailing sensitive trade secrets from his work account to a Norwegian competitor before joining it to launch a rival business in the U.S., according to a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday.
April 29, 2025
Firm In Salmon Antitrust Case Owes Referral Fee, Suit Says

A Boston law firm says another firm that served as co-lead counsel in a salmon purchaser antitrust case is refusing to honor a referral fee agreement for 15% of the attorney costs in the Florida litigation, according to a federal complaint filed Monday in Massachusetts.
April 29, 2025
Florida, 20 Other States Back FTC Commissioner Firings

A group of 21 Republican-led states and the Arizona Legislature are backing President Donald Trump's firing of two Democratic Federal Trade Commission members, telling the D.C. federal judge hearing the commissioners' case that the president has absolute authority over the commission.
April 29, 2025
Judge Tosses Chalmers' NIL Suit, Hands NCAA Major Victory

In a significant win for the NCAA against a wave of college athletes suing for past name, image and likeness compensation as a multibillion-dollar settlement awaits approval, a New York federal judge dismissed a proposed class action by 16 former men's basketball players accusing the NCAA of exploiting them long after their careers ended.
April 29, 2025
Caterpillar Says Dumping Probe Decisions 'Flawed And Unfair'

A Chinese arm of construction equipment giant Caterpillar argued in a London court Tuesday that it had been mistreated by the U.K. government over an anti-dumping probe, saying that it had been wrongly locked out of participating in the investigation.
April 28, 2025
Exec 'Can't Believe' X Offers Itself As Place For Friends

The Federal Trade Commission pressed executives and former leaders from X Corp., Strava, Pinterest and Reddit on Monday for all the things that distinguish their services from Meta Platforms Inc., painting Facebook and Instagram in D.C. federal court as effectively the only place to really connect with friends and family to show the social media giant's alleged monopoly.
April 28, 2025
DOJ's Slater Outlines 'America First Antitrust' Priorities

The head of the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division said Monday that robust antitrust enforcement meshes with conservative principles, and the agency's priorities will be on pocketbook issues and protecting individual liberty online.
April 28, 2025
DOJ Wants Live Nation Case Split Between Liability, Damages

The U.S. Department of Justice asked a New York federal court on Monday to split the case accusing Live Nation of quashing competition in the live entertainment industry by having a jury decide if the company violated antitrust law and the judge decide what remedies to impose.
April 28, 2025
9th Circ. Nixes COVID-19 App Suit Appeal Against Apple

The Ninth Circuit has once again shut the door on a doctor's suit accusing Apple of illegally refusing to distribute his COVID-19 tracking app through its app store, affirming a lower court ruling from October 2024 that denied his motion to reopen.
April 28, 2025
Compass Calls Wash. Listing Service Rules Anticompetitive

Compass told a Washington federal court that Northwest Multiple Listing Service and its broker-led board of directors have stifled competition, thwarting a product that allows home sellers to test home sales privately before registering them with the multiple listing service.
April 28, 2025
Rutgers Football Player Gets NCAA Transfer Rule Reprieve

A Rutgers University football player will get to play for the school in the upcoming season, after a New Jersey federal judge ordered the NCAA to waive its rule cutting short eligibility for former junior college athletes, a rule that has largely survived multiple recent court challenges.
April 28, 2025
Accuser Seeks $630K Sanction For Wright Defamation Suit

A Freshfields LLP counsel who claimed she had been pressured into engaging sexually with her George Mason University law professor Joshua Wright — and who subsequently was hit with a $108 million defamation suit in Virginia state court — is seeking more than $630,000 in sanctions for his allegedly "costly yearslong baseless litigation" against her.
April 25, 2025
Google Exec Warns Of 'Shadow' Of Chrome If DOJ Wins Sale

Chrome's top executive told a D.C. federal judge Friday that the Justice Department's bid to force the sale of Google's prized web browser would cause a dramatic degradation in quality for a product that is used by over one billion people and is heavily integrated into the rest of Google.
April 25, 2025
Thomson Reuters Tells 3rd Circ. AI Fair Use Appeal Is Too Early

Thomson Reuters on Thursday urged the Third Circuit to reject tech startup Ross Intelligence's bid for a quick appeal focusing on two key questions from a trial court decision concluding it infringed the Westlaw platform to create an artificial intelligence-backed competing legal research tool.
April 25, 2025
Judge Urges Creativity For Nonparties In Sprint Merger Row

T-Mobile, a group of Verizon and AT&T subscribers and a host of nonparty mobile carriers and network operators must try again to hash out a creative yet reasonable way to shield confidential information from the nonparties' anticipated discovery in litigation challenging T-Mobile's merger with Sprint, an Illinois magistrate judge has said.
April 25, 2025
Sutter Health To Pay $228M In Years-Old Antitrust Suit

A class of millions of health insurance premium payors asked a California federal judge Friday to greenlight an eleventh-hour $228.5 million settlement resolving their long-running claims that hospital chain Sutter Health drives up costs by pushing all-or-nothing network deals on insurers.
April 25, 2025
Telecom Org. Demands FCC Rethink Copper Retirement

A group made up of former FCC officials and telecom industry experts is hopping mad about the Federal Communications Commission's move to retire copper lines and move toward newer technology, calling it an "embarrassment of monumental proportions."

Expert Analysis

7 Ways 2nd Trump Administration May Affect Partner Hiring

President-elect Donald Trump's return to the White House will likely have a number of downstream effects on partner hiring in the legal industry, from accelerated hiring timelines to increased vetting of prospective employees, say recruiters at Macrae.
E-Discovery Quarterly: Rulings On Custodian Selection

Several recent rulings make clear that the proportionality of additional proposed custodians will depend on whether the custodians have unique relevant documents, and producing parties should consider whether information already in the record will show that they have relevant documents that otherwise might not be produced, say attorneys at Sidley.
Takeaways From DOJ, FTC End To Collaboration Guidelines

The Federal Trade Commission's and U.S. Department of Justice's recent decision to withdraw the guidelines for collaborations among competitors may reflect a desire for clearer parameters by emphasizing case law on specific ventures, but it also carries the potential to chill some future collaboration, say attorneys at Patterson Belknap.
What To Expect In Higher Ed Enforcement Under Trump

Colleges and universities should prepare for shifting priorities, as President-elect Donald Trump is likely to focus less on antitrust cases and more on foreign relations policy, while congressional oversight of higher education continues to increase, say attorneys at Steptoe.
Series

NY Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q4

In 2024's final quarter, the New York State Department of Financial Services published guidance on mitigating the rising cybersecurity risks of artificial intelligence and remote technology workers with North Korean ties, and the state attorney general launched an antitrust investigation into Capital One's proposed Discover merger, say attorneys at Haynes Boone.
Series

Exercising On My Peloton Bike Makes Me A Better Lawyer

While I originally came to the Peloton bike for exercise, one cycling instructor’s teachings have come to serve as a road map for practicing law thoughtfully and mindfully, which has opened opportunities for growth and change in my career, says Andrea Kirshenbaum at Littler.
3 Factors Affecting Retail M&A Deals In 2025

Retailers considering mergers and acquisitions this year face an evolving antitrust environment, including a new administration under President-elect Donald Trump, revised merger guidelines and a precedent set last year by a canceled $8.5 billion handbag merger, say attorneys at DLA Piper.
FTC Picks Augur Pro-Business Bent For Much Of Economy

President-elect Donald Trump's choice of two top Federal Trade Commission officials suggests a business-friendly climate for a significant portion of the U.S. economy, with noteworthy exceptions of continued scrutiny of healthcare and Big Tech companies, excluding artificial intelligence, say attorneys at BCLP.
Top 10 Legal Issues This Year For Transportation Industry GCs

General counsel must carefully consider numerous legal and policy challenges facing the automotive and transportation industry in the year to come, especially while navigating new technologies, regulations and global markets, says Francesco Liberatore at Squire Patton.
Exploring Venue Strategy For Trump-Era Regulatory Litigation

Litigation will likely play a prominent role in shaping policy outcomes during the second Trump administration, and stakeholders have several tools at their disposal to steer regulatory litigation toward more favorable venues, say attorneys at Covington.
What 2024's Noncompete Turmoil Means For Banks In 2025

A look back at the most significant legal challenges to the enforceability of various restrictive covenants like noncompete and nonsolicitation agreements in 2024 can help financial institutions address the use of these critical tools this year, say attorneys at Maynard Nexsen.
Searching For Insight On Requested Google Chrome Remedy

The potential for Google to divest its Chrome browser — a remedy requested by the Justice Department following a D.C. federal court’s finding the company is a monopolist — has drawn both criticism and endorsement, but legal precedent likely supports the former, say attorneys at Ballard Spahr.
Opinion

3 New Year's Resolutions For Antitrust Agencies To Consider

James Fredricks at Skadden rings in 2025 with his wish list for the federal antitrust agencies, starting with a provision for a presumptive safe harbor for information sharing.
FTC Focus: A Changing Of The Guard

While rigorous antitrust enforcement is unlikely to slow down at the Federal Trade Commission, the focus will undoubtedly change, including when it comes to Big Tech, as Andrew Ferguson prepares to take the reins from Chair Lina Khan, say attorneys at Proskauer.
Series

Playing Esports Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Competing in a global esports tournament at Wimbledon last year not only fulfilled my childhood dream, but also sharpened skills that are essential to my day job, including strategic thinking, confidence and networking, says AJ Schuyler at Jackson Lewis.