Competition

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Visa, Mastercard Cut New Deal Worth 'Well More Than $200B'

Visa, Mastercard and a class of potentially millions of merchants announced a new settlement Monday resolving two decades of antitrust litigation, which would permit more flexibility on what cards are accepted and would lower fees — with a five-year cap — to address a New York federal judge's concerns that an earlier version wasn't enough.
November 12, 2025
11th Circ. Grounds DOT's Delta, Aeromexico JV Split Order

The Eleventh Circuit Wednesday halted the U.S. Department of Transportation's order directing Delta Air Lines and Aeroméxico to scuttle their joint venture by Jan. 1, while the airlines pursue their petition asking the appellate court to void the government's order.
November 12, 2025
Fighters Say UFC Withheld Arbitration Evidence In Wage Suit

Ultimate Fighting Championship fighters suing the mixed martial arts organization for wage suppression are accusing it in Nevada federal court of withholding a large amount of evidence key to the UFC's bid to force their antitrust claims into arbitration.
November 12, 2025
Wash. Linebacker's Suit Over NCAA Limits Sprints To Tenn.

A Seattle federal judge has sent University of Washington linebacker Jacob Manu's lawsuit challenging NCAA eligibility limits to a Tennessee court, concluding the suit overlaps with a putative class action pending there over the same rules capping student-athletes at four seasons of competitive play.
November 12, 2025
Sandoz Tells 3rd Circ. To Restore Full $137M Win Over UTC

Sandoz Inc. and its marketing firm RareGen LLC urged a Third Circuit panel on Wednesday to reinstate the full $137.2 million awarded in breach of contract damages against United Therapeutics Corp., claiming a lower court's decision to halve the damages provided a windfall to their adversary.
November 12, 2025
Antitrust Plaintiffs Want Chat On Apple, Google CEO Depos

A group of consumers asked a federal judge on Wednesday for a private hearing after the court rejected their request to depose Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai in antitrust litigation accusing Google of suppressing rival search engines with anticompetitive deals.
November 12, 2025
NASCAR Can't Oust Teams' Damages Expert In Antitrust Trial

NASCAR can't block a damages expert from testifying at trial about potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in losses supposedly suffered by two teams suing the stock car racing company for alleged antitrust violations, a North Carolina federal judge ruled Wednesday.
November 12, 2025
Google Tells 9th Circ. Not To Revive Rumble Antitrust Case

Google urged the Ninth Circuit not to revive Rumble's antitrust suit accusing the tech giant of rigging search results to favor its YouTube unit over the rival video-sharing site, arguing a district court rightly found the claims time-barred.
November 12, 2025
Pork Buyers Fight Bid To Pause Price-Fixing Case For Appeal

Pork buyers told a Minnesota federal judge not to hit pause on their price-fixing case while Agri Stats Inc. and major producers push the Eighth Circuit to force the judge's recusal over a law clerk's previous work on a related case.
November 12, 2025
4th Circ. Sides With Father-Son Duo In Equity Fight

A company that makes elevated stairs on Wednesday lost its appeal at the Fourth Circuit following various rulings against it in a suit it lodged against its co-founder and his son over a soured business venture involving the design of the business's sole product.
November 12, 2025
Marathon Prevails In Texas Business Court Gas Contract Trial

A Texas Business Court judge found in favor of Marathon Oil Co. on Tuesday after a bench trial earlier this month, ruling that Winter Storm Uri absolved Marathon from having to buy natural gas to make up for delivery shortfalls to a commodity trading company.
November 12, 2025
NCAA, Volunteer Coaches Cut $303M Wage-Fixing Deal

The NCAA has agreed to pay $303 million to resolve antitrust claims by a class of more than 7,700 current and former NCAA Division I volunteer coaches whose wages were illegally suppressed by the athletic organization's former bylaw, according to documents filed in California federal court.
November 12, 2025
FTC Puts $3.6B Cabinetry Merger Under Microscope

The Federal Trade Commission has requested additional information from MasterBrand Inc. and American Woodmark Corp. about the planned $3.6 billion merger between the cabinet manufacturers, extending a waiting period that prevents the transaction from closing.
November 12, 2025
Jones Day, Paul Hastings Guide $9.3B Filtration Group Deal

Parker-Hannifin Corp. has said it will acquire Filtration Group Corp. in a transaction valued at about $9.25 billion, expanding the industrial manufacturer's reach into recurring-revenue filtration systems used across industrial, life sciences and HVAC markets.
November 10, 2025
Law360 MVP Awards Go To Top Attorneys From 76 Firms

The attorneys chosen as Law360's 2025 MVPs have distinguished themselves from their peers by securing significant achievements in high-stakes litigation, complex global matters and record-breaking deals.
November 10, 2025
Tyson's $85M Deal Gets Initial OK In Pork Price-Fixing Case

A Minnesota federal judge has granted preliminary approval for an $85 million settlement resolving consumers' claims against Tyson Foods Inc. in antitrust litigation that accused pork producers of conspiring with a benchmarking company to inflate pork prices by limiting supply in the U.S. market.
November 10, 2025
Nintendo Gets BlackBerry IP Suit Paused Amid USPTO Review

A Seattle federal judge sided with Nintendo on Friday in a dispute with an Irish firm that holds the rights to many of BlackBerry's inventions, agreeing to put the infringement suit on hold as the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office reassesses the viability of the patents in question.
November 10, 2025
Suit Over Calif. Truck Emissions Rules Sent To Golden State

An Illinois federal judge sent a suit brought by the American Free Enterprise Chamber of Commerce and joined by the Trump administration that challenges California's strict emissions standards for heavy-duty trucks to federal court in the Golden State.
November 10, 2025
GTCR's $627M Medical Coatings Acquisition Can Get Moving

GTCR BC Holdings LLC can continue with its plan to acquire the nation's leading medical coatings supplier and merge it with the nation's second leading provider while federal regulators challenge the transaction in-house, an Illinois federal judge said Monday, refusing to halt the deal.
November 10, 2025
Ulta Beauty's Guidance Doesn't Prevent 2nd Jobs, Co. Says

Ulta Beauty says a Washington federal court should throw out a proposed class action accusing the cosmetics retailer of illegally preventing its low-wage workers from taking additional jobs, arguing that the company's "nonbinding guidance" for employees is within legal limits on moonlighting.
November 10, 2025
Fiber Optics Co. Should Refile Antitrust Claims, Judge Says

A Texas federal judge said Monday a fiber-optics company should be required to refile its copyright infringement and antitrust claims against Parker-Hannifin Corp., but that a trade secret misappropriation claim should be left to stand as is.
November 10, 2025
Pfizer Again Asks Judge To Toss States' Price-Fixing Case

Pfizer has again asked a Connecticut federal judge to throw out claims it faces in a sprawling dermatology drug price-fixing lawsuit filed by multiple states against several pharmaceutical companies, arguing allegations against it were "scant and cursory."
November 10, 2025
FTC Dem Tells Justices Case Law Supports Her Reinstatement

Fired Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter has argued that in taking up her appeal over President Donald Trump's decision to remove her before her term was up, the U.S. Supreme Court is really mulling whether it has "gotten it wrong for the last 90 years."
November 10, 2025
FTC Risks Help Push Metsera Back To Pfizer

Novo Nordisk AS' aspirations to pry Metsera away from Pfizer Inc. collapsed over the weekend under the pressure of a revised Pfizer offer, twin court challenges and "a call from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission."
November 10, 2025
Zillow Pushed Consumers To Take Inferior Loans, Suit Says

Consumers have alleged in Washington federal court that Zillow Group Inc. ran an illegal kickback scheme that involved rewarding brokers and real estate agents with customer leads if they told clients to use Zillow's services to obtain mortgage loans, despite better financing options being available.
November 10, 2025
Stagecoach Settlement Leaves £3.8M For Legal Aid Charity

An appeals tribunal has awarded a national grant-making charity almost £3.8 million ($5 million) to mitigate the "extremely disappointing" distribution of rail operator Stagecoach's settlement of a collective action with passengers.

Editor's Picks

HPE's Trump-Tied Lobbyists Cast 'Pall' Over Merger Review

The firing of two senior officials in the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division who complained after being forced to accept a merger clearance settlement has caused many practitioners to question whether the traditional separation between competition enforcement and other White House priorities is a thing of the past.
Merger Settlements Return As Enforcers Keep Busy

The first half of 2025 saw a string of settlements by the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice allowing mergers to move forward, a marked shift from the prior administration.
Big Tech's Refusal-To-Deal Defense Hits A Wall: Judges

Apple couldn't do it. Google couldn't do it. Live Nation couldn't do it. CoStar couldn't do it at the Ninth Circuit. Companies accused of monopolization have continually tried to flip allegations of illegally locking in customers into hard-to-prove "refusal-to-deal" litigation.

Expert Analysis

Series

Law School's Missed Lessons: Networking 101

Cultivating a network isn't part of the law school curriculum, but learning the soft skills needed to do so may be the key to establishing a solid professional reputation, nurturing client relationships and building business, says Sharon Crane at Practising Law Institute.
Defeating Estoppel-Based Claims In Legal Malpractice Actions

State supreme court cases from recent years have addressed whether positions taken by attorneys in an underlying lawsuit can be used against them in a subsequent legal malpractice action, providing a foundation to defeat ex-clients’ estoppel claims, says Christopher Blazejewski at Sherin and Lodgen.
AI's Role In Google Antitrust Suit May Reshape Tech Markets

The evolution of AI in retail has reshaped the U.S.' antitrust case against Google, which could both benefit small business innovators and consumers, and fundamentally alter future antitrust cases, including the Federal Trade Commission's lawsuit against Amazon, says Graham Dufault at ACT.
Series

The Biz Court Digest: How It Works In Massachusetts

Since its founding in 2000, the Massachusetts Business Litigation Session's expertise, procedural flexibility and litigant-friendly case management practices have contributed to the development of a robust body of commercial jurisprudence, say James Donnelly at Mirick O’Connell, Felicia Ellsworth at WilmerHale and Lisa Wood at Foley Hoag.
Why Appellees Should Write Their Answering Brief First

Though counterintuitive, appellees should consider writing their answering briefs before they’ve ever seen their opponent’s opening brief, as this practice confers numerous benefits related to argument structure, time pressures and workflow, says Joshua Sohn at the U.S. Department of Justice.
FTC Focus: M&A Approvals A Year After Trump's Election

The Federal Trade Commission merger-enforcement regime a year since President Donald Trump's election shows how merger approvals have been expedited by the triaging out of more deals, grants for early termination of the Hart-Scott-Rodino waiting period, and zeroing in on preparing solutions for the biggest problems, say attorneys at Proskauer.
Game Not Over: Player Redshirt Suits Keep NCAA On Defense

A class action recently filed in Tennessee federal court highlights a trend of student-athlete challenges to the NCAA's four seasons eligibility rule following the historic House settlement in June, which altered revenue-sharing and players' name, image and likeness rights, say attorneys at BakerHostetler.
Series

Mindfulness Meditation Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Mindful meditation enables me to drop the ego, and in helping me to keep sight of what’s important, permits me to learn from the other side and become a reliable counselor, says Roy Wyman at Bass Berry.
HSR Data Shows Most Deals Exit Antitrust Review Unscathed

Merger activity is up, enforcement is down and the vast majority of deals are emerging from U.S. federal antitrust review in one piece, new 2024 fiscal-year Hart-Scott-Rodino data shows, meaning companies should not shy away from deals based on a perception that recent antitrust enforcement has been unusually aggressive, says Amanda Wait at Michael Best.
AI Litigation Tools Can Enhance Case Assessment, Strategy

Civil litigators can use artificial intelligence tools to strengthen case assessment and aid in early strategy development, as long as they address the risks and ethical considerations that accompany these uses, say attorneys at Barnes & Thornburg.
Post-Genius Landscape Reveals Technical Stablecoin Hurdles

The Genius Act's implementation has revealed challenges for mass stablecoin adoption, but there are several factors that stablecoin issuers can use to differentiate themselves and secure market share, including interest rate, liquidity, and safety and security, say attorneys at Olshan Frome.
How '24 Statements Show FTC's Direction On Political Speech

Two top Federal Trade Commission officials made concurring statements in 2024 that detailed a potential push to protect political speech, which have served as a preview of the commission's potential new focus on investigating social media and financial services firms to secure changes in those companies' internal business practices, says Benjamin Goldman at Montgomery McCracken.
Attys Beware: Generative AI Can Also Hallucinate Metadata

In addition to the well-known problem of AI-generated hallucinations in legal documents, AI tools can also hallucinate metadata — threatening the integrity of discovery, the reliability of evidence and the ability to definitively identify the provenance of electronic documents, say attorneys at Law & Forensics.
Balancing Reliability, Competition In FERC's Pipeline Proposal

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's proposed transparency requirements for interstate natural gas pipelines endeavor to improve electric system reliability but could also unintentionally foster coordination, says Lyle Larson at Balch & Bingham.
DOJ's UnitedHealth Settlement Highlights New Remedies Tack

The use of divestitures and Hart-Scott-Rodino Act compliance in the recent U.S. Department of Justice settlement with UnitedHealth Group and Amedisys underscores the DOJ Antitrust Division's willingness to utilize merger remedies under the second Trump administration, say attorneys at Buchanan Ingersoll.