Supreme Court's Apple App Store Pause Lifted After 24 Hours

By Bryan Koenig

Following the expiration of a roughly 24-hour pause on the App Store dispute between Apple and Epic Games, Apple put a 15% commission on the table Thursday to try to comply with a mandate forcing it to dramatically cut what it charges for App Store sales.

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'Anticompetitive Friction': Google Must Fix App Store Search

By Bonnie Eslinger

A California federal judge Thursday ordered Google LLC to streamline the steps for Android users to find rival app stores as part of his court-ordered remedies in antitrust litigation won by Epic Games Inc. against Google, saying the current user process includes "anti-competitive friction" to discourage competition.

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9th Circ. Revives $140M Robo-Surgery Antitrust Case

By Jared Foretek

The Ninth Circuit on Thursday revived a surgical instrument repair company's antitrust suit accusing the makers of the da Vinci surgical robot of illegally blocking third parties from repairing its machines, ruling that a district judge erred in applying the U.S. Supreme Court's Kodak factors to the dispute.

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3rd Circ. Upholds Dismissal Of Lipitor Pay-To-Delay Case

By George Woolston

The Third Circuit on Thursday backed the dismissal of an antitrust suit alleging Pfizer Inc. and Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd. conspired to delay the market entry of a generic version of the cholesterol drug Lipitor, ruling that the plaintiffs lacked standing.

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Glenmark Will Pay $15.3M To End Humana's Price-Fixing Claims

By Brian Steele

The U.S. arm of Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd. has agreed to settle generic-drug price-fixing claims brought by Humana Inc. in three lawsuits centralized in Pennsylvania-based multidistrict litigation, according to a filing with Indian stock exchanges.

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DOJ's HPE Merger Settlement Approved Over State Objections

By Matthew Perlman

A California federal judge approved a controversial settlement struck by the U.S. Department of Justice to end a case challenging Hewlett Packard Enterprise's $14 billion purchase of Juniper Networks, despite concerns from state enforcers about political influence in the settlement process.

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Judge Tosses Suit Over Pharmacy Match Program, For Now

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

A Maryland federal judge has dismissed a suit from pharmacy school graduates over the match system used by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, saying they failed to show that teaching hospitals and the professional pharmacy organization worked together to keep resident wages low.

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7 States Urge Feds To Reject $85B UP, Norfolk Southern Deal

By Lauren Berg

Seven state attorneys general are urging the federal Surface Transportation Board to reject the planned $85 billion merger between Union Pacific Corp. and Norfolk Southern Corp., saying the rail giants have not shown how the deal would serve the public interest.

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DirecTV Says Tegna Board Issue Proves Injunction Is Needed

By Nadia Dreid

DirecTV is pointing the Ninth Circuit toward a recent court order clarifying that when a federal judge told Nexstar and Tegna to remain separate while a challenge to their $6.2 billion merger plays out, that also meant they weren't allowed to put Nexstar execs on Tegna's board of directors.

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DOJ Backs X Corp.'s 5th Circ. Advertiser Boycott Appeal

By Bryan Koenig

The U.S. Justice Department backed X Corp. on Wednesday by arguing in a Fifth Circuit amicus brief that a Texas federal judge botched the antitrust injury analysis when tossing a lawsuit accusing Mars, CVS, Nestle, Lego, Tyson Foods and other advertisers of agreeing to boycott the social media platform after Elon Musk's purchase.

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Cheer Competition Organizers Settle Antitrust Fight

By Ganesh Setty

Cheerleading competition organizers at odds with the U.S. All Star Federation Inc. have told a Texas federal court they've reached a settlement to resolve all pending antitrust claims they asserted against the governing body.

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Customers Can't Depose Google, Apple CEOs, 9th Circ. Says

By Gina Kim

The Ninth Circuit has denied a group of consumers' petition for writ of mandamus challenging a lower court's order rejecting their repeated requests to depose Google's and Apple's CEOs and several other executives in antitrust litigation alleging the search engine giant shut out competitors.

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J&J Says No To Reviving Stelara Case

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

Johnson & Johnson has asked the Fourth Circuit not to revive CareFirst's antitrust suit alleging the company tried to monopolize the market for the immunosuppressive drug Stelara.

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DirecTV Says Nexstar Suit Discovery Damning But Incomplete

By Nadia Dreid

DirecTV says documents produced by Nexstar Media Group and the two companies accused of conspiring with the massive multimedia conglomerate to fix prices for retransmission fees already show that collusion was happening, but Nexstar is dragging its feet on producing the rest.

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Visa, Mastercard Get Joiner Cutoff In Swipe Fees Claim

By Sophia Dourou

Visa and Mastercard have convinced the Competition Appeal Tribunal to restrict the number of claimants ahead of a trial that will determine whether the credit card giants are allowed to rely on legal exemptions for anti-competitive interchange fees.

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Lilly Claims 6 Vendors Illegally Sold Obesity Drug Candidate

By Gianna Ferrarin

Eli Lilly & Co. hit a medical spa business, compounding pharmacy and a group of chemical suppliers with claims they're illegally selling an obesity drug candidate Lilly is researching, telling California and Texas federal courts the alleged "black market" sales threaten public health.

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Brief

CIBC Deal Ends Hedge Fund's Pharma Stock Spoofing Suit

By Jon Hill

A lawsuit accusing major banks of manipulating a former Canadian pharmaceutical company's stock and inflicting millions in losses on a hedge fund is drawing to a close after more than five years of litigation, according to a Thursday filing in New York federal court.

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Simon & Simon Seeks Loss Records In Uber, FedEx Suit

By P.J. D'Annunzio

Philadelphia injury firm Simon & Simon PC has asked a federal judge to order Uber and FedEx to submit records showing alleged financial losses in their Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organizations lawsuit accusing the firm of scheming to falsify medical records to boost injury claims against the companies.

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Nike Agrees To End Appeal Of TM Fee Award At 3rd Circ.

By Adam Lidgett

Clothing-maker Lontex Corp. and Nike Inc. have agreed to put an end to their battle over a lower court's finding that the sportswear giant had to pay attorney fees in a trademark case, asking the Third Circuit to undo a decision that the case was exceptional.

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Anti-DEI Group Asks FTC To Probe Law Fellowship Program

By Dorothy Atkins

An advocacy organization against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives filed an antitrust complaint with the Federal Trade Commission Wednesday, accusing Sponsors for Educational Opportunity of engaging in anticompetitive practices by allegedly colluding on DEI metrics and falsely advertising its program.

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What To Know As DOJ Antitrust Biz Review Letters Return

The revival of the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division's business letter review program reflects a trend of engagement with the business community, but the program's value will depend on the government's response speed, depth of analysis and ability to provide meaningful practical guidance, say attorneys at MoFo.

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Series

Going To Hardcore Shows Makes Me A Better Lawyer

While government contracts law and the hardcore scene may seem entirely unrelated, in my experience, both are about community, focus, being prepared for the unexpected and managing chaos, says Isaac Natter at Fluet.

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Baker Botts Atty Cleared Of Defamation In Inventor's Suit

By Carolina Bolado

A Florida federal judge on Thursday tossed a defamation claim against a Baker Botts LLP patent attorney after agreeing with a magistrate judge's conclusion that an inventor had not shown that the lawyer's comments to a reporter were defamatory.

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NYC Bar Committee Calls For Nationwide AI Rules Framework

By Andrea Keckley

A New York City Bar Association committee concluded in a policy paper published Wednesday that artificial intelligence tools "may assist legal work but cannot substitute for professional legal judgment," calling for a national framework to be built into the Model Rules of Professional Conduct governing its use.

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Trump Picks Ex-Arkansas SG, Walmart Lawyer For 8th Circ.

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump has announced that he's looking to elevate Judge Lee Rudofsky of the Eastern District of Arkansas to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.

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State Farm Attys Admit Filing Motions Full Of AI Hallucinations

By Jonathan Capriel

A law firm representing State Farm has admitted that its pretrial motions contained citations to nonexistent cases and legal quotes, errors that were seemingly "hallucinations" generated by AI software designed for lawyers and caught by the plaintiff's attorneys as they prepared for trial in a California state court case about fire damage coverage.

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Brief

DOJ Fraud Division To Reach 500 Staffers This Month

By Courtney Bublé

By the end of the month, there will be about 500 attorneys and staff in the U.S. Department of Justice's new fraud division, with more to come as time goes on.

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JP Ward Attorney Exodus Delays Pa. Labor Trafficking Suit

By Matthew Santoni

A "staffing disruption" at the Pittsburgh law firm J.P. Ward & Associates led the firm to request a stay of a labor-trafficking case against hotels in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, after the firm was reduced to one attorney and two staff members, according to court filings.

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