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Competition
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April 19, 2024
Mondi Drops Pursuit Of DS Smith After Int'l Paper Deal
British packaging company Mondi officially dropped out of its running battle with International Paper to buy DS Smith on Friday after the two latter companies struck a more than $7 billion deal to join forces earlier this week.
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April 19, 2024
UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London
This past week in London has seen U.K. holiday resort chain Butlins target Aviva and a huddle of insurers, Meta and WhatsApp tackle a patents claim by telecommunications company Semitel, an ongoing construction dispute between Essex County Council and Balfour Beatty, and Formycon AG hit a pharmaceutical company for infringing medical products. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.
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April 18, 2024
EU Antitrust Chief Says Merger Tool Not A 'Power Grab'
The European Commission's top competition enforcer said Thursday the agency has taken a measured approach to using its newly asserted power to review mergers that fall short of local thresholds, as the European trading bloc's high court mulls a challenge of that authority from DNA sequencing company Illumina.
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April 18, 2024
NFL Can't Call Sunday Ticket Package A 'Luxury' At Trial
The NFL cannot describe its Sunday Ticket broadcast package as a "luxury" in an upcoming trial over class action antitrust claims that the television bundle is anti-competitive, a California federal judge has ruled.
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April 18, 2024
Google Judge Notes Broad Reach Of Texas Ad Tech Claims
A Texas federal judge pressed Google during oral arguments Thursday to explain why a coalition of state attorneys general can't sue over its dominance in advertising placement auction technology when they're representing not just companies suing separately, but consumers as well.
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April 18, 2024
Conn. Marketing Co. Says Competitor Poached Top Exec
Unlock Health Inc. hired away a senior executive at competing healthcare marketing firm Primacy LLC who arrived at his new job with trade secrets from his ex-employer and a plan to lure former clients and co-workers, according to a lawsuit in Connecticut federal court.
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April 18, 2024
AGs, Google Defend $700M Play Store Deal Ripped By Judge
A group of state attorneys general and Google defended the proposed $700 million settlement both sides brokered in the states' antitrust suit against the company in December, telling a San Francisco federal judge that the deal is consistent with Ninth Circuit precedent and releases only a limited set of claims against Google for a seven-year period.
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April 18, 2024
T-Mobile, Others Rip 'Hodgepodge' Forced Store Closings Suit
T-Mobile says it doesn't belong in a suit accusing it and another company of misleading store owners by promising it would open hundreds of new stores in the wake of its $26 billion merger with Sprint in 2020 only to turn around and shut the plaintiffs down.
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April 18, 2024
NCAA Rips 'Vague' Claims In Student-Athlete's Transfer Suit
The NCAA has urged a West Virginia federal judge to toss a suit from a 22-year-old student-athlete alleging the organization tried to prevent him from being eligible to play basketball following a mid-season transfer, saying the suit is too vague to pass muster.
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April 18, 2024
Would-Be Whistleblowers Drop ER Service Overbilling Claims
A North Carolina federal judge has granted two whistleblowers' request to drop their suit accusing a pair of healthcare companies and their affiliates of overcharging both state and federal Medicare and Medicaid programs for emergency services provided at multiple regional hospitals, dismissing the case without prejudice.
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April 18, 2024
NCAA Reforms Division I Transfer Rule, Upgrades NIL Policy
The NCAA Division I Council voted unanimously to allow certain transferring student-athletes to be immediately eligible to play on the teams of their new schools, following a multistate antitrust lawsuit challenging current restrictions.
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April 18, 2024
Deals Rumor Mill: Tapestry-Capri, StubHub IPO, Salesforce
The FTC is preparing to sue to block Tapestry's $8.5 billion takeover of designer brands' owner Capri, StubHub is eyeing a summer IPO at an estimated $16.5 billion valuation, and Salesforce is making a play to acquire data-management software firm Informatica. Here, Law360 breaks down these and other notable deal rumors from the past week.
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April 17, 2024
No Sanctions For Wordy Footnotes In Google Maps Case
A California federal judge will not sanction attorneys representing Google Maps customers in an antitrust action for their "numerous and excessively long footnotes" after the lawyers on Wednesday explained it wasn't a tactic for avoiding page limits and promised not to do it again.
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April 17, 2024
ISPs Seek Clearer Preemption In Feds' Net Neutrality Draft
With the Federal Communications Commission set to vote on net neutrality rules later this month, internet service providers are hoping the agency will clarify exactly how its orders trump state regulations on ISP conduct.
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April 17, 2024
RTX Investor Sues Brass In Del. For Better Antitrust Oversight
A shareholder of RTX has sued the aerospace and defense giant's current and former officers and directors in Delaware's Court of Chancery, accusing them of failing over a period of at least eight years to prevent antitrust violations in the company's hiring practices.
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April 17, 2024
DC Judge Questions 7-Eleven Position On FTC Constraints
A D.C. federal judge on Wednesday pressed counsel for 7-Eleven on the company's claims that only the U.S. attorney general can seek civil penalties on behalf of the Federal Trade Commission, questioning how the commission itself can be limited when the FTC Act gives it the right to take up actions if the U.S. Department of Justice does not.
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April 17, 2024
EV Tax Credit Restrictions, Trade Bills Advance In House
The House Ways and Means Committee advanced several trade bills Wednesday that would impose more restrictions for new electric vehicles to qualify for a federal tax credit, assert congressional authority in agreements with foreign governments, and renew the country's largest and oldest trade preferences program.
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April 17, 2024
Don't Ignore Problematic Merger Docs, FTC Comp Chief Says
The Federal Trade Commission's top antitrust enforcer urged merging parties Wednesday to be fully open and transparent with reviewing staffers, warning that trying to get enforcers to ignore potentially problematic material just makes their jobs more difficult.
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April 17, 2024
Biden Admin Probes Chinese Shipbuilders For Unfair Trade
The Biden administration launched an investigation Wednesday into whether China used unfair practices to gain a competitive edge in the global shipping and maritime services sector, setting the stage for potential new tariffs against Beijing.
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April 17, 2024
Lawmaker Says New Merger Guides Hurt Small Businesses
The head of the House Small Business Committee has sent letters to the U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission, contending enforcers did not fully consider how new merger guidelines will impact the small business community.
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April 17, 2024
Gov't Officials Urge Global Cooperation On Taxing Wealth
Global cooperation on taxing the wealthiest individuals and companies is necessary to address climate change and create social justice, government officials from Brazil, France and Nigeria said Wednesday at the International Monetary Fund's spring meeting.
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April 17, 2024
ISP Frontier Inks $20M Internet Upgrade Deal For NC
Frontier is going to spend $20 million improving its internet speeds in North Carolina as part of a settlement with the state's Department of Justice after hundreds of customers complained that the internet service provider was advertising one speed while actually providing another.
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April 17, 2024
Jury Says Caterpillar's Interference Cost Equipment Co. $100M
A jury in Delaware has rejected antitrust claims against Caterpillar but found that the equipment maker caused a defunct importer $100 million in damages by interfering with its contract to sell equipment through an online sales platform.
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April 17, 2024
Dems Uneasy Over ESPN, Fox, Warner Sports Streaming App
A pair of House Democrats have raised concerns over plans by ESPN, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery's to combine their vast live sports portfolios into a single app, pressing the programmers for details to ensure the joint venture won't increase consumer prices and degrade licensing terms for leagues and distributors.
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April 17, 2024
American Urges 1st Circ. To Reject 'Radical' JetBlue Ruling
American Airlines has told the First Circuit that a judge's "radical vision of the antitrust laws" that blocked its Northeast Alliance joint venture with JetBlue shouldn't stand, arguing that federal enforcers are relying on misleading claims and outdated precedent to prop up the lower court's mistaken conclusion.
Expert Analysis
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Attorneys' Busiest Times Can Be Business Opportunities
Attorneys who resolve to grow their revenue and client base in 2024 should be careful not to abandon their goals when they get too busy with client work, because these periods of zero bandwidth can actually be a catalyst for future growth, says Amy Drysdale at Alchemy Consulting.
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In The World Of Legal Ethics, 10 Trends To Note From 2023
Lucian Pera at Adams and Reese and Trisha Rich at Holland & Knight identify the top legal ethics trends from 2023 — including issues related to hot documents, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity — that lawyers should be aware of to put their best foot forward.
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Opinion
Why Challenges To FTC Authority Are Needed
In spite of skepticism from courts, the Federal Trade Commission continues to advance novel legal theories — and Meta's recent federal suit against the agency over its alleged "structurally unconstitutional" administrative proceedings is arguably an expression of backlash to regulatory overreach, says Daniel Gilman at the International Center for Law & Economics.
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The Year In FRAND: What To Know Heading Into 2024
In 2023, there were eight significant developments concerning the fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory patent licensing regime that undergirds technical standardization, say Tom Millikan and Kevin Zeck at Perkins Coie.
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Volume-Based Transaction Pricing Proposal Raises Questions
A rule recently proposed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which would prohibit securities exchanges from offering volume-based transaction pricing for agency or riskless principal orders in certain stocks, is meant to address competitive concerns — but there are reasons to question the logic behind this proposal, say attorneys at Sidley.
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NCAA Proposal Points To A New NIL Compensation Frontier
Although NCAA President Charlie Baker's recent proposal for Division I institutions to pay student-athletes for name, image and likeness licensing deals is unlikely to pass in its current form, it shows that direct compensation for student-athletes is a looming reality — and member institutions should begin preparing in earnest, say attorneys at Pillsbury.
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Fed's New Swipe At Debit Fees Stirs Up Dilemma For Banks
The Federal Reserve's proposal to reduce the cap on debit card interchange fees charged or received by card issuers and payment networks comes as other bank account fees are taking regulatory hits, which could all culminate in an overall decline in access to banking products and services, says Kristen Larson at Ballard Spahr.
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Behind Antitrust Enforcers' 2023 Labor And Employment Push
This year, the U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission stepped up their already-considerable efforts to expand antitrust enforcement to labor and employment, a trend that is likely to continue into next year, say Benjamin Dryden and Richard Flannery at Foley & Lardner.
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How Attorneys Can Be More Efficient This Holiday Season
Attorneys should consider a few key tips to speed up their work during the holidays so they can join the festivities — from streamlining the document review process to creating similar folder structures, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.
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Exploring Middle-Market M&A Trends In 2023 And Beyond
Middle-market merger and acquisition activity this year was affected by a number of economic, legal and regulatory shifts, with certain trends pointing to favorable transaction conditions in 2024, say Jason Brauser and William Goodling at Stoel Rives.
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Series
Children's Book Writing Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Becoming a children's book author has opened doors to incredible new experiences of which I barely dared to dream, but the process has also changed my life by serving as a reminder that strong writing, networking and public speaking skills are hugely beneficial to a legal career, says Shaunna Bailey at Sheppard Mullin.
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Parsing 2023's Energy Markets Enforcement
A review of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's and Commodity Futures Trading Commission's recently released fiscal year 2023 enforcement reports highlight the significant energy market enforcement activities, litigation pursued and settlements reached by both agencies, as well as their respective strategic goals and focus areas, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.
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Hoopers In NCAA Suit Respark Eligibility Framework Debate
A decision by two brothers involved in a recent antitrust lawsuit against the NCAA — to play college basketball rather than go professional after graduating from the Overtime Elite league — has aimed the spotlight on what exactly the NCAA deems permissible compensation under its current framework, say Brady Foster and Dan Lust at Moritt Hock.
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Lessons From DOJ's Wave Of Labor Market Prosecutions
Attorneys at Patterson Belknap consider lessons learned and future meaningful challenges following the U.S. Department of Justice's first six criminal antitrust cases targeting employee no-poach and wage-fixing agreements, in which just one case resulted in a guilty plea.
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Opinion
Giving The Gov't Drug Patent March-In Authority Is Bad Policy
The Biden administration's recent proposal to allow government seizure of certain taxpayer-funded drug patents is a terrible idea that would negate the benefits of government-funded research, to the detriment of patients and the wider economy, says Wayne Winegarden at Pacific Research Institute.