The Federal Trade Commission has made clear that it considers the regulation of competition in health care markets one of its top priorities, but in recent weeks the FTC has been dealt a string of tough losses in its...more
As we have reported previously, the Federal Trade Commission recently has taken an aggressive stance in regulating mergers in the healthcare sector. The Commission has racked up a string of victories, but last week the...more
5/18/2016
/ Affordable Care Act ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FTC Act ,
Health Care Providers ,
Hospital Mergers ,
Merger Agreements ,
Popular ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Section 5 ,
Section 7 ,
The Clayton Act
It is plausible that Uber’s CEO, Travis Kalanick, may have violated antitrust law by fixing prices charged to Uber passengers, a judge in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York concluded last...more
Courts continue to evaluate the degree to which “reverse payments” are permitted post-Actavis. In the latest of these decisions, issued on February 22, 2016, the First Circuit held that non-cash payments may run afoul of the...more
3/1/2016
/ Anti-Competitive ,
Antitrust Litigation ,
FTC v Actavis ,
Generic Drugs ,
Patent Infringement ,
Pay-For-Delay ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Pharmaceutical Patents ,
Putative Class Actions ,
Reverse Payment Settlement Agreements ,
SCOTUS ,
Warner Chilcott ,
Watson Pharmaceuticals
We’ve previously written about how the Yates Memo announced an increased focus on individual accountability, and that the DOJ’s broader focus on individual accountability would likely encourage the Antitrust Division to...more
In the wake of Major League Baseball’s settlement of antitrust claims on the eve of trial, the central question from the lawsuit remains: are sports leagues’ exclusive broadcasting territories for live games an antitrust...more
In yet another high-profile enforcement action, last week EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager announced charges against Qualcomm Inc., a world leader in 3G, 4G, and next-generation wireless technologies and the...more
In an unusual criminal case, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals recently weighed in on an important question at the intersection of employment law and data security. The decision will likely have implications wherever...more
On November 17, 2015, the FTC submitted an amicus brief to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in In re Effexor XR Antitrust Litigation, where the district court had dismissed the plaintiffs’ claims of antitrust violations...more
On November 12, 2015, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion partially reversing the dismissal of the plaintiff’s claims in Hanover 3201 Realty, LLC v. Village Supermarkets, Inc., finding that plaintiff Hanover...more
We reported earlier today that the jury began deliberations this past Monday in the antitrust class action lawsuit against Cox Communications brought by its premium services subscribers. ...more
After a near two-week trial in the consumer class action lawsuit against Cox Communications, the jury began deliberations this past Monday to decide whether Cox’s alleged practice of tying premium cable services to rentals of...more
Earlier this month, Apple signaled its intention to petition for writ of certiorari after the Second Circuit upheld Judge Cote’s decision to apply per se liability in analyzing the firm’s conduct with respect to e-books in...more
10/1/2015
/ Antitrust Violations ,
Appeals ,
Apple ,
Competition ,
e-Books ,
Horizontal Agreements ,
Hub-and-Spoke Conspiracy ,
Monopolization ,
Publishers ,
SCOTUS ,
Vertical Restraints
Last month, the Associated Press was the first to report that the DOJ is investigating whether American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines, and United Airlines have engaged in collusion. Since that time, there has...more
This is our fourth post on the DOJ’s expanding investigation into possible price fixing by generic drug manufacturers. (Click here, here, and here to read our prior posts.) Since our last update, the DOJ has subpoenaed...more
We recently wrote about the Second Circuit’s June 30, 2015 decision affirming Judge Denise Cote’s decision that Apple conspired with five publishing companies to raise the price of e-books....more
8/7/2015
/ Abuse of Dominance ,
Amazon ,
Antitrust Violations ,
Apple ,
Authors ,
Books ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
e-Books ,
EU ,
Market Power ,
Publishers
This spring, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (the “CMA”) published a study on UK businesses’ awareness and understanding of competition law, understanding of anti-competitive behaviors, and penalties for any...more
Portions of a reverse payment suit against Endo Pharmaceuticals and others were recently dismissed by Judge William H. Orrick of the Northern District of California. The case was brought by plaintiffs who allege that a...more
7/24/2015
/ Antitrust Litigation ,
Assignments ,
Endo Pharmaceuticals ,
Generic Drugs ,
Indirect Purchasers ,
Patents ,
Pay-For-Delay ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Settlement Agreements ,
Standing ,
The Clayton Act ,
Wholesale
Recently, the FTC announced that it reached a settlement in its pay-for-delay lawsuit, FTC v. Cephalon Inc. in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, with Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries, Ltd.,...more
Last Thursday, American Express appealed the District Court for the Eastern District of New York’s February ruling that its anti-steering rules violated Section 1 of the Sherman Act. The court entered a permanent injunction...more
On Friday the Solicitor General filed an amicus brief in Kimble v. Marvel Enterprises. As we previously noted, in Kimble, the Supreme Court will consider whether to overturn Brulotte v. Thys Co., a 50-year-old precedent...more
3/13/2015
/ Antitrust Provisions ,
Breach of Contract ,
Brulotte ,
Kimble v Marvel Enterprises ,
License Agreements ,
Marvel Comics ,
Patent Infringement ,
Patent Royalties ,
Patents ,
SCOTUS ,
Settlement ,
Trademarks
The European Court of Justice recently announced that it will issue a decision in Genentech Inc. v. Hoechst GmbH, in response to a request from the Paris Court of Appeals for clarification on whether European antitrust law...more
Since we last reported on state and federal investigations into recent generic drug price increases, the investigations have moved forward against Philadelphia-based Lannett Co. On November 20, a Senate healthcare...more
On February 19, 2015, the District Court for the Eastern District of New York issued its ruling on liability in United States v. American Express. Following a seven-week trial, the Court found that American Express violated...more
On February 16, American Needle Inc. reached an agreement in principle with the National Football League to settle its claims. A settlement between the parties would mark the end of an antitrust litigation that has been...more