States' Generic Drugs Antitrust Case Headed Toward Trial

By Hailey Konnath

A Connecticut federal judge has mostly refused to side with pharmaceutical companies facing states' generic drug price-fixing litigation against them, ruling that there are genuine disputes of material fact as to drug distribution chains and the states' antitrust standing and teeing up the case for trial.

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FTC Mulls Merger Rule Appeal, Blasts 'Left-Wing' Chamber

By Bryan Koenig

After a Texas federal judge struck down a major overhaul of premerger reporting requirements, the Federal Trade Commission said Friday it would keep its options open for continuing the legal fight while also assailing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the plaintiff in the case, as a "left-wing" organization.

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Chewy Settles Antitrust Claims Over Elanco Flea & Tick Meds

By Matthew Perlman

Chewy has reached a settlement with consumers in a case accusing Elanco Animal Health Inc. of paying several pet supply retailers not to stock generic versions of its Advantix topical flea and tick prevention drugs.

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Zillow, Redfin Say FTC Suit Fails To Show Antitrust Harm

By Nate Beck

Zillow Group Inc. and Redfin Corp. backed up their attempt to escape a Virginia federal lawsuit from the Federal Trade Commission by arguing that the agency had overlooked the value to both renters and advertisers in a partnership between the companies not to compete for ads.

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'Acqui-Hires' In AI Drawing Antitrust Scrutiny, Tech Attys Say

By Bonnie Eslinger

Attorneys with Nvidia, Google and Uber took the stage at a conference hosted by Baker McKenzie to discuss emerging trends in antitrust enforcement, including how booming AI investment has produced new regulatory scrutiny of "acqui-hires," in which large companies acquire startups primarily to hire their teams.

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Competition Group Of The Year: Munger Tolles

By Matthew Perlman

Munger Tolles & Olson LLP helped Washington state enforcers bring a successful challenge to Kroger's planned $24.6 billion deal for Albertsons and steered major railroads to a crucial pretrial win in long-running price-fixing litigation, earning the firm a spot among the 2025 Law360 Competition Groups of the Year.

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MoFo, Paul Hastings Build $4.5B Tri Pointe Homes Sale

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Morrison Foerster LLP-advised Sumitomo Forestry Co. Ltd. announced plans Friday to acquire Tri Pointe Homes, advised by Paul Hastings LLP, in a $4.5 billion all-cash deal that will take the U.S. homebuilder private.

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Roundup

Taxation With Representation: Homburger, Lenz & Staehelin

By Zak Kostro

In this week's Taxation With Representation, offshore drilling contractor Transocean Ltd. acquires rival Valaris Ltd., historic British fund manager Schroders agrees to a cash takeover by U.S. asset manager Nuveen, and a consortium that includes U.S. private equity firm Advent International LP and FedEx Corp. buy Polish parcel locker company InPost.

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EU Approves Universal Music's $775M Deal For Downtown

By Matthew Perlman

European enforcers have greenlighted Universal Music Group's $775 million purchase of Downtown Music Holdings, after the companies agreed to unload a royalty accounting platform that has access to sensitive information from rival music labels.

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Brazil Antitrust Enforcer OKs $100M United Investment In Azul

By Emily Lever

Brazil's antitrust regulator has cleared a $100 million investment by United Airlines in Azul SA as part of the Brazilian airline's Chapter 11 reorganization, finding the transaction posed no anticompetitive risk.

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Brief

UK Opens Probe Into Daily Mail Owner's £500M Telegraph Deal

By Najiyya Budaly

Britain's competition and communications regulators said Friday that they have launched parallel investigations into the proposed £500 million ($680 million) acquisition of Telegraph Media Group by the owner of the Daily Mail newspaper as they respond to instructions from the government.

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Brief

EU Announces Duties Against Korean, Taiwanese Plastics

By Jack McLoone

Imports of a plastic with a wide range of uses from South Korea and Taiwan into the European Union and an amino acid imported from China were hit with antidumping duties Friday, the European Commission announced.

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Ga. Nursing Board Faces Suit Over Student Placement Policy

By Kelcey Caulder

The Georgia Board of Nursing is violating federal antitrust law with a "protectionist" policy that prevents online and out-of-state nursing programs from placing their students at Georgia facilities for clinical rotations, an online college told a federal court.

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Series

Judges On AI: Practical Use Cases In Chambers

U.S. Magistrate Judge Allison Goddard in the Southern District of California discusses how she uses generative artificial intelligence tools in chambers to make work more efficient and effective — from editing jury instructions for clarity to summarizing key documents.

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Law Professors Sue EEOC For Firm DEI Letter Records

By Craig Clough

Two professors at law schools in Michigan and Florida have sued the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in D.C. federal court, seeking documents related to 20 letters the agency sent to law firms over their purported diversity, equity and inclusion practices.

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Goldstein Tax Trial Heads To Closing Args As Defense Rests

By Jared Foretek

Jurors in SCOTUSblog founder Thomas Goldstein's tax fraud trial will hear closing arguments Wednesday, after the final two witnesses in the monthlong proceeding took the stand, and new emails regarding Goldstein's efforts to conceal poker debts came to light Tuesday.

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Flat Fee Or Contingency? Firm, Ex-Client Fight Over IP Spoils

By Ben Adlin

A 3D printing technology company has urged a Washington federal court to toss a breach of contract lawsuit brought by its former law firm, Lee & Hayes PC, arguing it agreed to a flat fee ahead of a patent settlement, while Lee & Hayes says it only waived a contingency fee because of its onetime client's "underhanded misrepresentations."

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J&J Fights Beasley Allen's Bid To Pause Talc DQ Ruling

By Emily Sawicki

A New Jersey state court lacks standing to block an appellate panel's removal of Beasley Allen from representing hundreds of women with ovarian cancer pursuing claims against Johnson & Johnson over talcum powder, the pharmaceutical company has argued in an opposition brief.

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Valve Jury Says Rothschild, Atty Broke Anti-Patent Troll Law

By Rachel Riley

Inventor Leigh Rothschild, his companies and his former attorney broke Washington state's anti-patent trolling law by making a bad faith assertion of patent infringement against video game developer Valve Corp., and Rothschild and his companies breached an intellectual property licensing deal in the process, a Seattle federal jury found on Tuesday. 

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Supreme Court Adopts Rule To Suss Out Stock Conflicts

By Katie Buehler

The U.S. Supreme Court announced Tuesday that litigants will soon be required to include companies' stock ticker symbols in court documents as part of new rules aimed at helping the justices identify potential conflicts of interest.

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Sens. Concerned About Live Nation Case After DOJ 'Ousting'

By Matthew Perlman

A group of Senate Democrats is raising concerns about potential political influence at the U.S. Department of Justice, following the abrupt departure of the agency's top antitrust enforcer weeks before Live Nation is set to face trial in the government's monopolization case.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jeff Montgomery

Cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence disputes continued their slow weave into Delaware Court of Chancery and state Supreme Court dockets last week, with jurists and litigants grappling over how — or if — the courts' old-school equity jurisdiction and fiduciary duty hooks apply to new kinds of deals.

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