RealPage Wins Injunction Against NY Rent Software Law

By Bonnie Eslinger

A federal judge in Manhattan granted RealPage's request for a preliminary injunction blocking a New York law banning building owners from using the property management platform to set residential rents, saying the company is "marginally" likely to prevail on its claim the statute regulates speech protected by the First Amendment.

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Live Nation Can't Ditch FTC's Ticket Scalping Case

By Dorothy Atkins

A California federal judge refused Monday to toss the Federal Trade Commission's claims Live Nation ignored ticket scalpers and failed to disclose significant Ticketmaster fees upfront, finding the suit plausibly alleges Ticketmaster didn't enforce its own resale policies and duped consumers with "ambiguous and vague" disclosures.

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Gail Slater To Join White & Case After DOJ Ouster

By Alison Knezevich

Former U.S. Department of Justice antitrust chief Gail Slater is set to join White & Case LLP as a partner in Washington, D.C., next month, the firm said Tuesday.

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Zillow Must Face Realtors' Antitrust Suit Over Referral Terms

By Rachel Riley

A Washington federal judge Monday refused to throw out a proposed class action accusing Zillow of bullying realtors into buying its software and steering clients toward its home loan services, saying the plaintiff agents have adequately alleged they had "no choice" but to play along to get homebuyer referrals.  

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Construction Equipment Rental Antitrust Case Moves Ahead

By Matthew Perlman

An Illinois federal court refused to toss a case accusing construction equipment rental companies including United Rentals, Herc and The Home Depot of using benchmarking software to inflate rental rates.

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Walmart, Energizer Battery Buyers Lose Antitrust Cert. Bid

By Craig Clough

A California federal judge denied class certification Monday in three suits alleging Energizer schemed with Walmart to artificially inflate disposable battery prices, finding the buyers' economists' regression models comparing battery prices to lighting products could not reliably show the alleged agreement raised prices.

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Fanatics, NFL, NBA, MLB Defeat Trading Card Monopoly Suit

By Hailey Konnath

A New York federal judge Tuesday threw out trading card customers' suit claiming that Fanatics manipulated the market through exclusive deals with major sports leagues and players' associations, finding that the customers don't have standing to bring their claims.

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Md. Judge Tosses Vivid Seats 'Drip Pricing' Suit

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

A Maryland federal judge has tossed a proposed class action brought by a customer accusing Vivid Seats of "drip pricing" — in which the total cost is revealed only at the end of the buying process — saying that even if added fees included at checkout made the total price more expensive than what was originally displayed, the ticket was still purchased.

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Lupin Strikes Deal In States' Generic Drug-Price Fixing Suit

By Gina Kim

Lupin Pharmaceuticals has reached a settlement with multiple states to resolve allegations that it conspired with G&W Laboratories Inc. to raise prices of the tuberculosis drug Ethambutol during a supply shortage years ago, according to a minute order entered in Connecticut federal court on Monday.

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Brief

Disney's Antitrust Case Against InterDigital Paused

By Nadia Dreid

InterDigital has convinced a Delaware federal judge to press pause on a lawsuit brought by Disney accusing the technology development company of refusing to offer reasonable licenses on patents for video streaming.

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Latham, Wilson Sonsini Guide AMD's $8.2B World Labs Buy

By Al Barbarino

AMD has agreed to buy AI model developer and research lab World Labs in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $8.2 billion, acquiring a team that the chipmaker said will help bolster its efforts to develop AI infrastructure for emerging models and applications.

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Co-op Gets Tentative OK For Merger With Plan To Sell Stores

By Joel Poultney

The antitrust watchdog said Tuesday that it provisionally believes that a proposal by the Co-operative Group to sell 15 convenience stores and two funeral homes would allay its competition concerns over the retailer's completed acquisition of a rival.

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3rd Circ. Affirms Thomson Reuters' Westlaw AI Copyright Win

By Ivan Moreno

The Third Circuit on Tuesday upheld Thomson Reuters' victory against Ross Intelligence Inc. in the first U.S. appellate ruling to address whether artificial intelligence training can be fair use of copyrighted material, upholding a Delaware federal court's decision that the startup infringed Westlaw headnotes by using material derived from them to develop an AI-powered legal search tool.

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Bristol-Myers, Natco And More Can't Ditch Cancer Drug MDL

By Hailey Konnath

A New Jersey federal judge Tuesday refused to throw out sprawling antitrust multidistrict litigation over Celgene Corp.'s cancer drug Revlimid filed against Bristol-Myers Squibb, Natco Pharma, AbbVie and other pharmaceutical companies, ruling that buyers' pay-for-delay claims are plausible at this stage in the litigation.

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Surgical Robot Co. Says 9th Circ. 'Expands' Antitrust Law

By Bryan Koenig

Intuitive Surgical asked the full Ninth Circuit to reconsider a decision reviving a surgical repair company's claims that it blocked third parties from refurbishing components for its popular da Vinci surgery robot, arguing the panel created a whole new pathway to alleging monopolization of secondary markets.

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NY, Florida, Mass. Bar Officials Duck Disbarred Atty Suit

By Bryan Koenig

A New York federal judge threw out a permanently disbarred attorney's due process claims against New York state, Massachusetts and Florida disciplinary officials Monday, finding no New York ties to the out-of-state officials and concluding the New York disbarment came not from disciplinary officials but from a state court.

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Cloud Fails To Upend Revvity's $4.5M Fee, Contract Win

By Julie Manganis

A Massachusetts intermediate appellate court on Tuesday affirmed a lower court's finding that Cloud Software Group LLC wrongly used a "sham audit" to justify terminating a long-term partnership with another software company in order to poach its customers.

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Call Center Claims No Ties To NC In ADT Wrong-Number Suit

By Hayley Fowler

The operator of a third-party call center asked Tuesday for an early exit from ADT Security Corp.'s lawsuit alleging the operator helped facilitate a predatory telemarketing scheme, saying it lacks sufficient ties to be dragged into court in North Carolina.

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X Corp. Says Crypto Gambling Company Bribed X Employees

By Spencer Brewer

X Corp. told a Texas federal court that a company behind two controversial crypto gambling websites, which allegedly bribed X employees, cannot arbitrate claims that X unfairly removed their access to its website.

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Texas Biz Court Pares Southwest Union's Boeing Suit

By Spencer Brewer

A Texas Business Court judge pared back the scope of claims brought by the pilots union for Southwest Airlines against The Boeing Co. after regulators grounded the 737 Max aircraft, saying Monday that the pilots can recover only direct damages, not damages from secondary injuries.

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Philly Plaintiffs' Firm Says Uber Can't Support RICO Claims

By Mike Curley

Philadelphia personal injury firm Simon & Simon PC is again urging a Pennsylvania federal judge to throw out Uber Technologies Inc.'s racketeering claims alleging Simon & Simon masterminded a scheme to inflate settlements, saying none of the ride-sharing company's arguments or evidence show it was injured.

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Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: September Lessons

In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy discusses six recent rulings involving pecuniary loss in false price comparison advertising, privity in an insurance fee class, antitrust standing, immigration class representatives, retirement beneficiary class commonality, and Rule 23(f) appeals in Fair Labor Standards Act claims.

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11th Circ. Won't Pause Sanctions Against Trump In IRS Case

By Jack McLoone

An Eleventh Circuit panel refused Tuesday to pause a district court's sanctions order barring President Donald Trump and others from citing the agreement he made to settle his $10 billion suit against the Internal Revenue Service while they appeal the order.

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DC Circ. Weighs Limits On Boasberg's Contempt Inquiry

By Jared Foretek

A top Justice Department official told an en banc D.C. Circuit panel that a district judge should refer former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for contempt over the 2025 deportation flights to El Salvador and move on, saying the judge had no authority to wrap others into his inquiry.

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Jack Smith Says He Won't Be Intimidated By Trump Threats

By Courtney Bublé

Former special counsel Jack Smith testified on Tuesday he "will not be silenced" by threats of prosecution by the president or others.

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Baker Botts Atty Disputes Inventor's Claim Of Defamation Deal

By Madison Arnold

A Baker Botts LLP patent attorney is pushing back on an inventor's claim that they reached a settlement agreement in the inventor's defamation suit in Florida federal court.

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Richards Layton Atty's Chancery Nomination Advanced

By Rose Krebs

A Delaware senate committee Tuesday advanced the nomination for a Richards Layton & Finger PA director to serve as a vice chancellor on the nationally important Chancery Court, with him vowing to continue the court's esteemed legacy for corporate law jurisprudence.

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