Competition

  • May 10, 2024

    US Soccer, Relevent Sports Aim To Settle Antitrust Dispute

    Relevent Sports' antitrust lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation over its alleged monopoly on professional matches in the United States was referred to a magistrate judge on Friday so the parties can try to work out a settlement.

  • May 10, 2024

    Engineering Firm Inks Latest Deal In Conn. No-Poach Suit

    Belcan Engineering Group LLC has reached a deal with a proposed class of aerospace workers who accused it of conspiring with a Raytheon Technologies Corp. subsidiary and others to restrict hiring through anti-competitive "no-poach" agreements, according to a notice filed in Connecticut federal court.

  • May 10, 2024

    Quinn Emanuel Loses Co-Head Of UK Competition Group

    The co-head of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP's U.K. competition practice group has left after less than a year and a half at the firm.

  • May 10, 2024

    UK Opens Probe Into Thermo Fisher's $3.1B Olink Buy

    Britain's competition watchdog said it is opening an inquiry into Thermo Fisher's $3.1 billion bid to buy Swedish biotech firm Olink Holding AB over competition concerns, according to an official notice issued Friday.

  • May 10, 2024

    UK Class Actions Face Tougher Test On Distributing Damages

    A decision by the antitrust tribunal to certify a £790 million ($990 million) mass claim against major European power cable suppliers came with the caveat that it intends to take a tougher approach toward claimant lawyers' plans for getting awards into the pockets of consumers.

  • May 10, 2024

    2 Firms Guide United Bankshares On $267M Piedmont Buy

    Bowles Rice LLP and Sullivan & Cromwell LLP are representing United Bankshares Inc. on a $267 million agreement to buy Georgia-based Piedmont Bancorp Inc., which the lenders disclosed Friday and said marks United's 34th acquisition.

  • May 09, 2024

    Google Slams Maps Antitrust Suit As 'Cut-And-Paste Job'

    Google's counsel urged a California federal judge Thursday to permanently toss a proposed antitrust class action over its Maps product, calling the complaint a "cut-and-paste job" from a 2020 House report and accusing plaintiffs of "trying to gin up an antitrust claim" where one doesn't exist.

  • May 09, 2024

    Amazon, Walmart Face Dem Questions Over 'Dynamic Pricing'

    Senate Banking Committee Chair Sherrod Brown on Thursday raised concerns to Amazon and Walmart about corporations hiking prices by exploiting customer data and pricing algorithms, saying it undermines consumers' ability to comparison shop and save money.

  • May 09, 2024

    FTC Says Handbag Cos. Have Info Needed To Defend $8B Deal

    The Federal Trade Commission assailed Tapestry and Capri on Wednesday for demanding more details on the market allegedly threatened by their planned $8.5 billion merger, which would pair the parent company of Coach and Kate Spade with that of Versace and Michael Kors, arguing the firms have the information they need.

  • May 09, 2024

    Attys Want $102M In Fees In Stock Loan Antitrust Deal

    Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP and Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC attorneys asked for $102 million in fees for settling claims from investors that major banks colluded to avoid modernizing the stock loan market, saying the long and complex nature of the case warrants the payout.

  • May 09, 2024

    Nintendo Gets Switch Suit Stay Pending Patent Review

    A Seattle federal judge agreed Thursday that Nintendo could pause an intellectual property suit against it while it seeks to challenge the validity of the patents at issue, saying the plaintiff could not now complain about delays since it waited six years to file its complaint.

  • May 09, 2024

    Hermes Seeks Exit From Antitrust Suit Over Birkin Bag Sales

    Hermès urged a California federal judge on Thursday to toss an antitrust class action accusing the luxury fashion retailer of tying the sale of its iconic Birkin and Kelly handbags to other items, saying the plaintiffs' assertion that the handbags constitute their own market minimizes the "fierce competition" across the luxury goods industry.

  • May 09, 2024

    Chicken Farmers Win Cert. Of 24K Class In No-Poach Suit

    An Oklahoma federal judge has certified a class of more than 24,000 broiler chicken farmers accusing Pilgrim's Pride of conspiring with others to suppress grower compensation through no-poach agreements, noting the plaintiffs provided direct and circumstantial evidence to show the existence of an antitrust conspiracy affecting all farmers.

  • May 09, 2024

    DOJ Task Force To Target Healthcare Monopoly, Collusion

    The U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division sharpened its focus Thursday on healthcare platforms that combine doctors with insurers, data and more in what the administration's top competition official called the "alarming" accumulation of assets.

  • May 09, 2024

    FICO Blasts Discovery 'Sideshows' In VantageScore Suit

    An Illinois federal judge handling antitrust claims targeting the credit-scoring market should disregard the "sideshows" customers lodged by requesting confidential settlement records and other documents that are too far removed from the case's core issues, Fair Isaac Corp. argued on Wednesday.

  • May 09, 2024

    GOP Sens. Call Biden's Bluff On US Steel-Nippon

    Three Republican senators urged President Joe Biden on Thursday to block Nippon Steel's planned $14.9 billion acquisition of U.S. Steel, calling his prior comments opposing the deal "worthless" while claiming he has the authority to terminate the deal immediately under laws that address "a national emergency." 

  • May 09, 2024

    Watchdog Seeks Texas Judge's Recusal In Noncompete Case

    An industry watchdog is calling on U.S. District Judge J. Campbell Barker to step away from the U.S. Chamber's lawsuit in Texas federal court challenging the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's new noncompete rule, citing "ample financial conflicts" including his investments in Amazon, Apple and IBM, two of which are members of the Chamber.

  • May 09, 2024

    FTC's Exxon-Pioneer Nod Sets New Tone For Oil & Gas M&A

    The close of Exxon Mobil Corp.'s $60 billion purchase of Pioneer Natural Resources shows that even the largest oil and gas deals can overcome heavy regulatory and political scrutiny, but an agreement Exxon struck with the Federal Trade Commission puts other energy companies pursuing deals on notice about their public communications.

  • May 09, 2024

    Sports Direct Seeks To Revive Newcastle Injunction Bid

    Sports Direct urged an appeals court on Thursday to grant it an injunction to force Newcastle United to stock its store with replica kits of the Premier League football club, arguing that the antitrust tribunal was wrong to refuse its request.

  • May 09, 2024

    Google Fights To Shut Down Advertising Antitrust Case

    Tech giant Google asked a London tribunal on Thursday to strike out a proposed class action brought on behalf of website publishers who run advertisements over alleged anti-competitive practices, arguing the claim is not properly pleaded and does not sufficiently set out damages.

  • May 09, 2024

    Deals Rumor Mill: Paramount, Peloton, International Paper

    Sony and Apollo plan to break up Paramount if their $26 billion bid prevails, private equity firms are eyeing a Peloton buyout, and International Paper gets a $15 billion bid from Brazil's Suzano. Here, Law360 breaks down the notable deal rumors from the past week.

  • May 08, 2024

    AI Art Cos. Fight Uphill To Toss Artists' Copyright Suit

    Attorneys for four companies that make or distribute software that creates images with text prompts urged a California federal judge Wednesday to rethink his tentative opinion to allow some claims by a proposed class of artists to move forward, with one warning it could lead to hundreds of thousands of similar suits.

  • May 08, 2024

    Apple Judge Skeptical Tech Giant Complying With Epic Order

    The California federal judge overseeing Epic's antitrust suit against Apple reacted skeptically Wednesday to an Apple executive's claim that it has fully complied with her order aimed at allowing app developers to send users to outside payment platforms, saying some of Apple's new rules appear to "stifle competition."

  • May 08, 2024

    Fuel Truck Exec Cops To Rigging Firefighting Contract Bids

    An Idaho fuel truck company executive accused of conspiring with others to manipulate bids for U.S. Forest Service firefighting contracts to suppress other competitors in the market over an eight-year period pled guilty Wednesday in federal court, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

  • May 08, 2024

    BIA Tells 8th Circ. Energy Co. Can't Revive Lease Suit

    The U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs has asked the Eighth Circuit to uphold a North Dakota federal judge's dismissal of Prima Exploration Inc.'s oil and gas lease termination suit, saying the lower court correctly dismissed the case for failure to exhaust administrative remedies.

Expert Analysis

  • Tips For Healthcare M&A Amid Heightened Antitrust Scrutiny

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    As the Biden administration maintains its aggressive approach to antitrust merger enforcement, prudent healthcare M&A counsel will consider practical advice when contemplating their next transaction, including carefully selecting a merger partner and preparing for a potentially long waiting period prior to closing, say attorneys at Davis Wright.

  • Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: March Lessons

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    In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy discusses four notable circuit court decisions on topics from consumer fraud to employment — and provides key takeaways for counsel on issues including coercive communications with putative class members and Article III standing at the class certification stage.

  • Spartan Arbitration Tactics Against Well-Funded Opponents

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    Like the ancient Spartans who held off a numerically superior Persian army at the Battle of Thermopylae, trial attorneys and clients faced with arbitration against an opponent with a bigger war chest can take a strategic approach to create a pass to victory, say Kostas Katsiris and Benjamin Argyle at Venable.

  • EU Inquiry Offers First Insight Into Foreign Subsidy Law

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    The European Commission's first in-depth investigation under the Foreign Subsidies Regulation into a public procurement process, and subsequent brief on regulatory trends, sheds light on the commission's approach to such cases, as well as jurisdictional, procedural and substantive issues under the regulation, says Matthew Hall at McGuireWoods.

  • Opinion

    PACCAR Should Be 1st Step To Regulating Litigation Funders

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    Rather than reversing the U.K. Supreme Court's well-reasoned judgment in PACCAR v. Competition Appeal Tribunal, imposing a regulatory regime on litigation funders in parity with that of lawyers, legislators should build upon it to create a more transparent, competitive and fairer funding industry, says Rosa Curling at Foxglove.

  • What The NIL Negotiation Rules Injunction Means For NCAA

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    A Tennessee federal court's recent preliminary injunction reverses several prominent and well-established NCAA rules on negotiations with student-athletes over name, image and likeness compensation and shows that collegiate athletics is a profoundly unsettled legal environment, say attorneys at Pillsbury.

  • Md. May See Vigorous Resale Price Maintenance Enforcement

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    In Maryland, indications of a new focus on resale price maintenance agreements are significant because state prosecution in this area has been rare, particularly outside California, say attorneys at DLA Piper.

  • What 2 Years Of Ukraine-Russia Conflict Can Teach Cos.

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    A few key legal lessons for the global business community since Russia's invasion of Ukraine could help protect global commerce in times of future conflict, including how to respond to disparate trade restrictions and sanctions, navigate war-related contract disputes, and protect against heightened cybersecurity risks, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • Antitrust Enforcers' Views On Info Exchanges Are Evolving

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    As antitrust enforcers' views on information exchanges between competing companies have matured in response to technological advances, companies would do well to reconsider whether the exchanges in which they participate meet the most recent compliance benchmarks, say attorneys at Norton Rose.

  • What Recent Study Shows About AI's Promise For Legal Tasks

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    Amid both skepticism and excitement about the promise of generative artificial intelligence in legal contexts, the first randomized controlled trial studying its impact on basic lawyering tasks shows mixed but promising results, and underscores the need for attorneys to proactively engage with AI, says Daniel Schwarcz at University of Minnesota Law School.

  • The Epic Antitrust Cases And Challenges Of Injunctive Relief

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    The Epic cases against Apple and Google offer a window into the courts' considerable challenges in Big Tech litigation and establishing injunctive relief that enhances competition and benefits consumers, say Kelly Lear Nordby and Jon Tomlin at Ankura Consulting.

  • Decline In Same-Industry M&A Tells A Nuanced Policy Story

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    In light of newly available Hart-Scott-Rodino Act data suggesting that intraindustry mergers are down overall and pharmaceutical and hospital intraindustry transactions tend to face greater antitrust scrutiny than in the past, attorneys at Morgan Lewis explore whether Biden administration enforcement policies may be curbing pro-competitive strategic M&A.

  • Behind The 'CVR Spin' Method Of Unlocking Assets In M&A

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    The spinoff of contingent value rights, or the CVR spin, can unlock secondary and noncore assets in public mergers and acquisitions, while resolving the market dislocation of some traditional divestitures, say attorneys at Gibson Dunn.

  • Opinion

    European Union Criticisms Of The FCPA Are Misguided

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    Some in the European Union have criticized U.S. enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act for what they perceive as jurisdictional overreach, but this appears to overlook the crucial fact that jurisdiction is voluntary, and critics should focus instead on the lack of equivalent laws in their own region, say John Joy and YuTong Wang at FTI Law.

  • 5 Models For Structuring Health Provider-Payor Partnerships

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    With recent data showing that the U.S. continues to spend more and get less for healthcare services compared to other industrialized nations, providers and payors should consider a variety of partnership structures that can help achieve the so-called triple aim of improving the health of individuals and populations while reducing per capita costs, says John Howard at Thompson Coburn.

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