Live Nation Kicks Off Defense Case In Antitrust Trial

By Stewart Bishop

A coalition of state attorneys general on Thursday mostly concluded their antitrust case against Live Nation and its Ticketmaster subsidiary, following weeks of a trial that was nearly derailed after the U.S. Department of Justice dropped out, and Live Nation kicked off its defense case with a company executive who pushed back against claims of anticompetitive conduct.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

FTC Antitrust Head Cites Acquihire 'Tension' With Deal Rule

By Bryan Koenig

The Federal Trade Commission's top antitrust official said Thursday that so-called reverse acquihires appear designed solely to avoid merger reporting requirements, while noting that competition enforcers continue to scrutinize the deals that are newly popular in Silicon Valley, especially in the artificial intelligence space.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

X Corp.'s Lack Of Antitrust Injury Dooms Ad Boycott Suit

By Rae Ann Varona

A Texas federal judge Thursday dismissed X Corp.'s sprawling antitrust suit that accused several advertisers of unlawfully boycotting the Elon Musk-owned social media company by substantially cutting back on or stopping ad purchases, saying X didn't suffer any antitrust injury.

Opinion attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Joe Gibbs Racing Wants Rival Blocked From Using Stolen Info

By Hayley Fowler

Joe Gibbs Racing LLC on Thursday pushed to enjoin rival NASCAR team Spire Motorsports from using confidential race data allegedly stolen by its former competition director, even as Spire denied having the information and decried the accusations as unfounded.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

DOJ Says NY-Presbyterian Blocked Lower-Cost Health Plans

By Mark Payne

New York-Presbyterian Hospital is forcing major health insurers to contract with it on an "all-or-nothing" basis, which is driving up healthcare costs in New York City and violates federal antitrust law, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a federal lawsuit filed Thursday. 

Complaint attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

DOJ Takes Issue With Tyson Args In Turkey Price-Fixing Fight

By Rae Ann Varona

The U.S. Department of Justice has urged an Illinois federal court not to take up Tyson Foods' application of a Fourth Circuit decision in the turkey processor's bid to defeat consolidated antitrust litigation against poultry producers, saying the out-of-circuit decision conflicts with U.S. Supreme Court precedent.

Statement attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

States Will Fill DOJ, FTC's Antitrust Void, Ill. AG Atty Says

By Bryan Koenig

The top antitrust attorney at the Illinois attorney general's office predicted Thursday that state enforcers will continue to pick up the pace as the Federal Trade Commission and especially the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division "become less transparent and less active."

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Antitrust Leaders Say Lobbyists Don't Impact Outcomes

By Matthew Perlman

The leaders of the Federal Trade Commission and U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division said Thursday that companies can lobby the agencies all they want, but enforcers will still make merger and conduct decisions based on the facts and the law.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Recovery Of State Aid Can't Target Related Cos., ECJ Advised

By Josh White

The European Commission overstepped when it ordered Belgium to recover unlawful state aid not just from companies that received tax exemptions but from every member of their corporate groups, an adviser to the European Union's top court said Thursday.

Opinion attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Hovis Deal With Kingsmill Owner Raises Antitrust Issues

By Najiyya Budaly

The antitrust authority said Thursday that it has provisionally found that the acquisition by Associated British Foods PLC of Hovis Group Ltd. raises competition concerns in the supply of bread and other bakery products in Northern Ireland.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Dems Talk Nexstar-Tegna Merger At Telecom Act Hearing

By Nadia Dreid

Lawmakers touched on a lot of topics during the nearly three hours Thursday they spent dissecting the Telecommunications Act, which turns 30 this year, but the one that Democrats kept dragging the hearing back to was the FCC's recent approval of the $6.2 billion broadcast merger between Nexstar and Tegna.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

FTC Warns Mastercard, PayPal, Stripe, Visa About Debanking

By Jon Hill

The Federal Trade Commission on Thursday warned major payment companies that denying services to consumers based on their politics or religion could lead to an enforcement action, the latest move in the Trump administration's broader crackdown on so-called debanking.

4 documents attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Ketamine, WilmerHale Probe Off Limits In Musk-OpenAI Trial

By Dorothy Atkins

A California federal judge has placed evidentiary guardrails on an April jury trial over Elon Musk's claims OpenAI duped him, excluding evidence on Musk's ketamine use and WilmerHale's investigation into Sam Altman's dismissal, but allowing evidence on Musk's rival startup, his romance with an ex-OpenAI boardmember and his Burning Man trip.

Order attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

L'Oreal Wants Color Wow Co.'s Purchase Price Kept Secret

By Brian Steele

An executive for L'Oréal USA Inc. has asked a Connecticut state court judge not to force the public disclosure of the price the company paid to acquire Federici Brands LLC, the company behind Color Wow hair care products, as part of a former Federici president's lawsuit alleging she is owed $40 million from the transaction.

1 document attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

'I Don't Know': 9th Circ. Presses Verrilli On Boeing Venue Issue

By Rachel Riley

A Ninth Circuit judge rehearing an appeal involving a $72 million trade secret verdict against Boeing on Thursday pressed the company's counsel Donald B. Verrilli Jr. of Munger Tolles & Olson LLP to explain why the aerospace giant never previously argued the case belongs in the Federal Circuit, and Verrilli conceded he didn't know the reason.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Pregnancy 'Crisis' Center Loses Bid To End Deception Claims

By Julie Manganis

A Massachusetts federal judge on Thursday rejected a request by an anti-abortion nonprofit and a Missouri marketing firm to dismiss claims that they tried to trick women into visiting a pregnancy "crisis" center.

Opinion attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Brief

Ex-Deloitte Workers Can't Undo Charge Revival, 4th Circ. Says

By Abigail Harrison

The full Fourth Circuit has declined to reconsider its late February decision to revive most of the charges against two ex-Deloitte workers accused of stealing the company's trade secrets, after the workers insisted the unfavorable ruling bucked circuit and U.S. Supreme Court precedent.

2 documents attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Nippon Case Illustrates Challenges Of Proving Antitrust Injury

A recent California federal court decision dismissing challenges to Nippon Steel's purchase of U.S. Steel underscores the longtime antitrust precedent that while the limitations of injury are critical for defendants sued under U.S. antitrust laws, showing that the harm is real is the key, says Cameron Regnery at Freeman Mathis.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

BigLaw Races To Capture Expanding Fund Finance Market

By Kevin Penton

Debt financing work at the fund level has long been dominated on the lender side by attorneys from Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft LLP, Haynes Boone and Mayer Brown LLP, but other firms are increasingly crafting formal practices and poaching fund finance stars from the more established players.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

The Lanier Law Firm, Kiesel Law LLP, Panish Shea Ravipudi LLP, Wagstaff & Cartmell LLP and Beasley Allen Law Firm lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after a California state jury in a bellwether trial found Meta and Google liable for harming the mental health of a woman who says she became addicted to their social media platforms as a child.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

NJ Federal Judge DQs Beasley Allen In J&J Talc MDL

By Emily Sawicki

A New Jersey federal judge has disqualified the Beasley Allen Law Firm from representing hundreds of plaintiffs in sprawling multidistrict litigation over Johnson & Johnson's talc-based baby powder, holding that the firm violated ethics rules by collaborating with former outside counsel for J&J, a ruling the law firm has vowed to appeal.

2 documents attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Atty Sanctioned For AI Hallucinations In Workers' Comp Row

By Gianna Ferrarin

A New Jersey appellate court on Friday ordered an attorney to pay $1,000 in sanctions for failing to rectify AI-hallucinated case citations pointed out to him in an appeal concerning reimbursement sought by a workers' compensation carrier.

4 documents attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

By Laura Stewart Liberty

The past week in London has seen Apple hit back at a tech company's wireless charging patent claim, a flurry of businesses bring COVID-19 pandemic insurance claims as a key deadline draws closer and Ipulse Partners LLP file a claim against a luxury yacht company it represented in a trademark dispute. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Polsinelli Hires Practice Head From McDermott In NY

By Andrea Keckley

Polsinelli PC said Thursday that it has hired a longtime McDermott Will & Schulte LLP attorney to co-lead its special situations and alternative investment practice, saying the move "further advanc[es] the firm's strategic focus on private credit, distressed investing, and complex restructuring matters."

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Apollo, BlackRock Deny Asking Kirkland To Abandon Optimum

By Tracey Read

Apollo, Ares, BlackRock and other major financial companies have denied Optimum Communications' claims accusing them of "bullying" Kirkland & Ellis LLP into withdrawing as the telecommunications company's transaction counsel to get revenge for a collusion lawsuit filed in New York federal court.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

A federal judge has stopped the Pentagon from dropping AI giant Anthropic from the government's supply chain, and Latham & Watkins ranked first in a survey of in-house legal leaders on which law firms are most helpful in developing business, followed by King & Spalding, Jones Day and Ropes & Gray. .

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Firms Targeted By Trump Urge DC Circ. To Uphold EO Rulings

By Alison Knezevich

Four law firms targeted last year by President Donald Trump urged the D.C. Circuit on Friday to affirm lower court rulings that struck down executive orders restricting their ability to practice law, saying the directives blatantly violate the Constitution.

4 documents attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Brief

Amazon Swaps MoFo In, Perkins Coie Out In Cooker Suit

By Ben Adlin

Amazon.com LLP switched counsel Friday in a customer's product defect suit accusing the retail giant of selling a faulty pressure cooker that allegedly malfunctioned and caused her severe burns, substituting two Morrison Foerster LLP attorneys in place of an outgoing Perkins Coie LLP lawyer.

2 documents attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Mich. Judge Signals No Stay If Attys Exit Retaliation Suit

By Melanie Dorsey

A Michigan federal judge said Friday she is not inclined to pause a long-running sexual harassment suit again if counsel for an attorney who is suing her ex-mentor and former firm are allowed to withdraw, telling the parties, "We've been here. We've done this," as she heard arguments over a motion to exit the case.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Judiciary Nixes Amicus Disclosure Reform Over Potential Chill

By Emily Sawicki

The federal judiciary has been asked not to move forward with a plan to add to amicus brief disclosure requirements designed to curb "dark money" groups from bankrolling amicus briefs, after rules committee chairs pulled the recommendation over concerns of a possible chilling effect.

Memorandum attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Mayer Brown's $21M Fee Bid In RI Truck Tolls Suit Rebuffed

By Linda Chiem

A Rhode Island federal judge on Friday rebuffed Mayer Brown LLP's bid for $21 million in attorney fees for representing the commercial trucking industry's lead trade group in long-running litigation over the state's truck tolling program, saying the American Trucking Associations ultimately was not the "prevailing party."

Order attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »