Competition

  • June 11, 2025

    Ex-Google Engineer Loses Bid To Toss AI Espionage Counts

    A California federal judge has refused to toss economic espionage charges against an ex-Google engineer accused of stealing artificial intelligence trade secrets to help startups in China, adding that prosecutors' assertion that the man was trying to benefit the People's Republic of China "as opposed to benefiting himself ... seems dubious."

  • June 11, 2025

    Audible Can't Close Book On Audiobook Monopoly Suit

    Audible must face a romance novelist's proposed class action alleging the Amazon-owned retailer monopolizes the audiobook market by trapping authors in unlawful exclusivity agreements to prevent their books from appearing on rival platforms while charging the authors supracompetitive distribution fees, a New York federal judge ruled Wednesday.

  • June 11, 2025

    Ga. PI Firm Says 'Distasteful' Practices Aren't Court's Concern

    An Atlanta personal injury firm called on the Georgia Court of Appeals Wednesday to squash a proposed class action accusing it of stealing clients from other lawyers through shady solicitation practices, arguing that whether its business model is ethical or not, it isn't grounds for litigation.

  • June 11, 2025

    Verizon-Frontier Merger Gets Conn. Regulator's OK

    Connecticut's Public Utilities Regulatory Authority on Wednesday approved the merger of debt-laden internet and telephone services provider Frontier Communications with a wholly owned subsidiary of Verizon, saying the latter has the financial and managerial stability plus the technical knowledge necessary to provide adequate and reliable service to customers.

  • June 11, 2025

    Chamber Looks To Keep Merger Notice Challenge In Texas

    The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups have urged a Texas federal court not to transfer their case challenging the Federal Trade Commission's new merger filing requirements, arguing that several members based in the state regularly report mergers to the agency.

  • June 11, 2025

    FCC Dem's Job Safe For Now As Agency Ranks Shrink

    The Federal Communications Commission is running on a shoestring when it comes to high-level decisions, with only a Republican chair and Democrat left in charge after recent departures that have made the agency's chairman unable to move major initiatives.

  • June 11, 2025

    HPE Says DOJ Wants 'Unfair' Juniper Merger Trial Advantage

    Hewlett Packard Enterprise has asked a California federal judge to evenly dole out time for the July trial challenging its planned $14 billion purchase of Juniper Networks Inc., arguing the U.S. Department of Justice wants to "tilt the playing field in its favor" with an uneven allocation.

  • June 11, 2025

    NFL Tells 9th Circ. $4.7B Sunday Ticket Verdict Rightly Nixed

    The National Football League has told the Ninth Circuit that a lower court was right to toss a $4.7 billion jury verdict for claims that the league colluded to raise the price of the Sunday Ticket broadcast package on DirecTV, after the court found testimony from a pair of experts during trial was unreliable.

  • June 11, 2025

    Attys For Disney Streaming Customers Vie To Lead Settlement

    Days after announcing that they've reached a settlement with Disney, live TV streaming customers are looking to appoint Yavar Bathaee from Bathaee Dunne LLP to serve as the lead counsel in their proposed antitrust class action against the company over ESPN carriage agreement fees.

  • June 11, 2025

    DOJ Seeks Green Light For Landlord Deal In RealPage Suit

    The federal government has asked a North Carolina federal judge to sign off on a consent decree reached with landlord Cortland Management LLC in antitrust litigation targeting RealPage Inc. and the landlords it alleges used the company's software to collude on rental prices.

  • June 11, 2025

    UK Probes Evri Postal Logistics Merger With DHL Unit

    The U.K. competition watchdog said Wednesday it is taking a preliminary look at plans by the Evri Ltd. parcel delivery service to merge with the U.K. e-commerce unit of the global DHL Group to form a major postal logistics service in Britain. 

  • June 10, 2025

    Vertex Says Tax Software Rival Purposely Destroyed Evidence

    Tax compliance software company Vertex Inc. told a Pennsylvania federal judge Monday that Avalara intentionally destroyed and failed to preserve "key sources of electronically stored information crucially relevant" to Vertex's lawsuit accusing its rival of poaching workers to steal trade secrets.

  • June 10, 2025

    Ill. Judge Questions Standing In Biogen Antitrust Suit

    An Illinois federal judge seemed skeptical Tuesday that health benefit plans accusing Biogen of impairing competition for its multiple sclerosis drug, Tecfidera, have standing to bring their lawsuit under decades-old precedent allowing only direct purchasers to recoup damages.

  • June 10, 2025

    9th Circ. Skeptical Oregon Hospital Merger Law Is Too Vague

    A Ninth Circuit panel on Monday appeared skeptical of a hospital association's challenge to an Oregon law that grants a state agency broad power to block proposed healthcare consolidations to ensure equitable access to healthcare, with two of the three judges questioning whether federal law could limit the state's authority.

  • June 10, 2025

    Lawmakers Float NIL Bills Following NCAA Deal

    Members of Congress introduced a pair of bills Tuesday looking to establish national standards for how college athletes monetize their name, image and likeness in the wake of the landmark NCAA class action settlement last week.

  • June 10, 2025

    EU Says OK To $3.1B Intelsat-SES Merger

    Satellite titan SES SA's $3.1 billion plan to buy rival satellite operator Intelsat Holdings has won the approval of the European Commission, which has waved the merger through with no conditions.

  • June 10, 2025

    Judge Denies Calif. Tribe's Bid To Restore Gaming Eligibility

    A D.C. federal judge Tuesday declined to reinstate a California tribe's gaming eligibility for a casino-resort project in the San Francisco Bay Area while the U.S. Department of the Interior reassesses its approval, ruling that the tribe hasn't shown it would be imminently harmed by the eligibility suspension.

  • June 10, 2025

    Health Records Co. Looks To Toss Patient Data Access Case

    PointClickCare is urging a Maryland federal court to toss a case seeking to force the medical records company to allow Real Time Medical Systems to access patient data with automated bots after the Fourth Circuit refused to lift an order requiring access while the case plays out.

  • June 10, 2025

    Dog Owner Defends Tick Meds Suit Against Elanco, Retailers

    A consumer plaintiff has urged an Indiana federal judge not to dismiss her proposed class action accusing Elanco Animal Health Inc. of paying off alleged co-conspirators Chewy, Petco, PetMed Express, PetSmart and PetSense to not carry cheaper generative alternatives to the Advantix topical flea and tick pet prevention drugs.

  • June 10, 2025

    Deere & Co. Must Face FTC Suit Over Repair Restrictions

    An Illinois federal judge compared John Deere's second attempt at beating a right-to-repair suit to Steve Martin's Pink Panther II reboot, calling it "predictable" and "derivative" as he again rejected the farm equipment giant's motion for judgment on the pleadings and allowed the Federal Trade Commission's case against it to proceed.

  • June 10, 2025

    Stability AI, Others Fear Artists' Expert Might Use Their Info

    Stability AI and other artificial intelligence art platforms urged a California federal magistrate judge Tuesday to block an artists' expert in a proposed copyright infringement class action from having access to their confidential information, their lawyer arguing the professor is a "functional competitor" who created software to "sabotage" his clients' products.

  • June 10, 2025

    Sezzle Claims Shopify Is Stifling 'Buy Now, Pay Later' Services

    Digital payment platform Sezzle Inc. has hauled Shopify Inc. into Minnesota federal court, accusing the Canadian e-commerce giant of abusing its market power in customizable online storefronts to further stifle competition for "buy-now, pay-later" services.

  • June 10, 2025

    Target, Campbell's End Chicken-Price Fix Suit With Mar-Jac

    Target Corp. and The Campbell's Co. are the latest broiler chicken purchasers to permanently end their price-fixing claims Monday against poultry processor giant Mar-Jac Inc. in a decade-old sprawling antitrust litigation claiming broiler chicken producers acted in concert to limit chicken production to raise prices and exchange sales volume information with each other.

  • June 10, 2025

    Clerk's Role Means Antitrust Judge Must Recuse, Court Told

    Pork producer defendants involved in a major pork price-fixing case continue to push for the recusal of a Minnesota federal judge because of his clerk's connections to plaintiff-side firms, arguing the plaintiffs are running from "indisputable facts."

  • June 10, 2025

    Innsworth Seeks Review Of £200M Mastercard Settlement Split

    Litigation funder Innsworth announced Tuesday it was launching a High Court challenge to how the Competition Appeal Tribunal decided to distribute a £200 million ($270 million) settlement reached between Mastercard and Walter Merricks to end litigation over credit card fees.

Expert Analysis

  • Dewberry Ruling Is A Wakeup Call For Trademark Owners

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Dewberry v. Dewberry hones in on the question of how a defendant's affiliates' profits should be treated under the Lanham Act, and should remind trademark litigants and practitioners that issues involving monetary relief should be treated seriously, say attorneys at Finnegan.

  • New HSR Rules Augur A Deeper Antitrust Review By Agencies

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    After some initial uncertainty, the new Hart-Scott-Rodino Act rules did go into effect last month, and though their increased information requirements create greater initial burdens for merging parties, the rules should lead to greater certainty and predictability through a more efficient and effective review process, says Craig Malam at Edgeworth Economics.

  • 7 Tips For Associates To Thrive In Hybrid Work Environments

    Excerpt from Practical Guidance
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    As the vast majority of law firms have embraced some type of hybrid work policy, associates should consider a few strategies to get the most out of both their in-person and remote workdays, says James Argionis at Cozen O’Connor.

  • Series

    Playing Beach Volleyball Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    My commitment to beach volleyball has become integral to my performance as an attorney, with the sport continually reminding me that teamwork, perseverance, professionalism and stress management are essential to both undertakings, says Amy Drushal at Trenam.

  • US Soccer Win Shows Value Of Defining 'Relevant Market'

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    Despite U.S. Soccer's successful defense against North American Soccer League's antitrust allegations, sports leagues should continue to be mindful of risks posed by hierarchical structures since the New York federal judge in that suit found a triable issue of fact on the relevant markets issue, say attorneys at Debevoise.

  • If Elphaba Had Signed A Restrictive Covenant In 'Wicked'

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    Following the recent big-screen release of "Wicked," employers should consider how the tale might have ended if the Wizard of Oz had made Elphaba sign a restrictive covenant agreement, which would have placed clear limitations on her ability to challenge his regime, says Emily Wajert at Sidley.

  • Opinion

    2 Errors Limit The Potential Influence Of AI Fair Use Case

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    The recent opinion in Thomson Reuters v. ROSS Intelligence may have little predictive value for artificial intelligence litigation, because the decision failed to engage with an important line of case law on intermediate copying, and misapplied the concepts of commercial substitution and superseding use, says Brandon Butler at Jaszi Butler PLLC.

  • How Law Firms Can Counteract The Loneliness Epidemic

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    The legal industry is facing an urgent epidemic of loneliness, affecting lawyer well-being, productivity, retention and profitability, and law firm leaders should take concrete steps to encourage the development of genuine workplace connections, says Michelle Gomez at Littler and Gwen Mellor Romans at Herald Talent.

  • Opinion

    DOJ's HPE-Juniper Challenge Is Not Rooted In Law

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    Legal precedents that date back as far as 1990 demonstrate that the U.S. Department of Justice's recent challenge to the proposed $14 billion merger between Hewlett Packard and Juniper is misplaced because no evidence of collusion or coordinated conduct exists, says Thomas Stratmann at George Mason University.

  • How Citizen Petitions Have Affected Drug Competition

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    In light of recent citizen petitions and proposed legislation regulating such petitions, Omar Robles at Managing Health analyzes the statistics of the extent to which citizen petitions have been filed, and to what extent they have delayed competition in prescription pharmaceuticals.

  • 5 Keys To Building Stronger Attorney-Client Relationships

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    Attorneys are often focused on being seen as the expert, but bonding with clients and prospects by sharing a few key personal details provides the basis for a caring, trusted and profoundly deeper business relationship, says Deb Feder at Feder Development.

  • BlackRock Suit Highlights Antitrust Risks Of ESG

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    In Texas v. BlackRock, pending in Texas federal court, 13 state attorneys general are suing large institutional investors in the coal business, underscoring key reasons companies may want to alter their approach to developing and implementing policies related to environmental, social, and governance factors, especially if coordination with competitors is involved, say attorneys at Manatt.

  • What Reuters Ruling Means For AI Fair Use And Copyright

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    A Delaware federal court's recent decision in Thomson Reuters v. ROSS Intelligence is not likely to have lasting effect in view of the avalanche of artificial intelligence decisions to come, but the court made two points that will resonate with copyright owners who are disputing technology companies' unlicensed use of copyright-protected materials to train generative AI models, says David Ben-Meir at Ben-Meir Law Group.

  • How The AI Antitrust Landscape Might Evolve Under Trump

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    The Trump administration's early actions around artificial intelligence and antitrust policy, along with statements from competition regulators, suggest that the AI competition landscape may see reduced scrutiny around acquisitions, but not an entirely hands-off enforcement approach, say attorneys at Hogan Lovells.

  • Series

    Racing Corvettes Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    The skills I use when racing Corvettes have enhanced my legal practice in several ways, because driving, like practicing law, requires precision, awareness and a good set of brakes — complete with the wisdom to know how and when to use them, says Kat Mateo at Olshan Frome.

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