FTC Cuts Deal To End Anesthesia Group Rollup Case

By Matthew Perlman

The Federal Trade Commission reached an agreement Thursday to settle its case accusing U.S. Anesthesia Partners Inc. of monopolizing the Texas anesthesia services market by purchasing most of the competing anesthesia practices in the state.

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Judge Says Newsmax Was Forum Shopping With Fox Case

By Nadia Dreid

Newsmax appeared to be forum shopping when it refiled its dismissed lawsuit accusing Fox Corp. of pressuring cable and streaming providers into not carrying the rival right-leaning broadcaster in Wisconsin federal court, says the judge who just shipped the case back to Florida.

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Meta Defends Toss Of Consumer Antitrust Case At 9th Circ.

By Matthew Perlman

Meta told the Ninth Circuit a lower court was right to find no support for an expert's theory that Facebook would have paid users $5 a month for using the service if it didn't misrepresent its privacy and data practices.

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Mich. Brokers Appeal Tossed Antitrust Claims Over NAR Rules

By Nate Beck

A group of Michigan real estate brokers and agents on Thursday said they would ask the Sixth Circuit to review a March decision rejecting the proposed antitrust class action over rules set by the National Association of Realtors and its local affiliates for accessing online home listing services.

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Judge Orders Media Matters To Give X Its Employee Lists

By Spencer Brewer

A Texas federal judge on Thursday ordered left-leaning media watchdog Media Matters for America to hand over employee lists and editorial process information to X Corp. as part of a business disparagement suit, ending a lengthy battle between the parties over the documents.

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Bosch And Other HVAC Leaders Accused Of Price-Fixing

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

Bosch Inc. and six other leading heating, ventilation and air conditioning equipment businesses are facing a proposed antitrust class action in Michigan federal court alleging they conspired to fix the prices of HVAC equipment.

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Warner Stockholders Back $110B Paramount Skydance Deal

By Al Barbarino

Warner Bros. Discovery Inc.'s shareholders voted to approve the planned $110 billion sale to Paramount Skydance Corp. at a meeting on Thursday. 

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CMA Eyes Joint Venture's $2.7B Deal For Substantial Group

By Dawood Fakhir

The competition regulator said Thursday that it is seeking views on how the Nexfibre joint venture's $2.7 billion acquisition of Substantial Group, the second-largest alternative fiber provider in the U.K., could harm competition in the country.

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CMA Seeks Views On EBay's $1.2B Depop Buy From Etsy

By Dawood Fakhir

Britain's competition watchdog said Thursday that it is seeking views from interested parties on how eBay's planned $1.2 billion acquisition of Depop, an online marketplace for used apparel, could affect competitiveness in the country.

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Fla. Subpoenas Cos., Green Groups In Plastics Antitrust Probe

By Carolina Bolado

Florida's attorney general has subpoenaed several major corporations, including Unilever, Coca-Cola, Target, Nestle and Mondelez International, and a number of environmental groups as part of an investigation into whether their involvement in organizations aiming to reduce plastic waste might run afoul of antitrust and consumer protection laws.

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Expert Must Speak To Ruined Phone Claims In Antitrust Case

By Rachel Riley

A Washington federal judge said Wednesday that a digital forensics expert who was hired by a former Pilgrim's Pride employee facing bid-rigging allegations must testify in long-running civil antitrust litigation accusing poultry producers of price-fixing, finding the expert may be able to speak to claims that the worker destroyed evidence.

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JetBlue Charges You More Based On Your Data, Suit Says

By Nadia Dreid

JetBlue could be charging travelers more if they have a funeral to attend, according to a new lawsuit that was filed after one of the airline's social media accounts offered a customer tips on how to get a cheaper flight that included clearing their cache and booking with an incognito browser.

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Wildfire App Can't Get Competitor's Launch Blocked

By Elliot Weld

A California federal judge has declined to issue a preliminary injunction at the behest of a competitor to block the launch of an app that gives out information about wildfires, saying this competitor had not adequately explained the delay between when it learned of the planned app's launch and when it filed suit.

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Viamedia Fights Comcast's In-House Doc Access Proposal

By Lauraann Wood

Viamedia is pushing back on Comcast's proposal for loosening confidentiality protections so the cable giant's in-house litigation counsel can access highly confidential documents as the parties' antitrust trial looms, saying that it agrees a change is necessary but that Comcast's "disingenuous and self-serving" idea is not the way to do it.

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Homebuyers Ask Fla. Court To Block Ill. Broker Fee Settlement

By Isaac Monterose

Homebuyers in a proposed class action accusing real estate brokerages of conspiring to hike up their fees asked a Florida federal court to block the companies from settling similar antitrust claims in an Illinois lawsuit.

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As Game Cos. Fight Over Docs, Judge Trims Requests

By Jarek Rutz

Mobile game companies Skillz Inc. and Tether Studios LLC clashed Thursday in Delaware Chancery Court over the scope of discovery in a contract and trade secrets dispute, with each accusing the other of withholding critical information, while Vice Chancellor Morgan T. Zurn largely trimmed back what she said were overbroad requests.

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Amazon Urges 9th Circ. To Uphold Block On Perplexity AI Bot

By Hailey Konnath

Amazon on Wednesday pressed the Ninth Circuit to leave in place an injunction blocking a startup's artificial intelligence tool, Comet, from purchasing items on Amazon.com, calling the tool "a textbook violation" of federal and state law and arguing that the injunction is backed by a robust record.

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Pa. County Joins Insulin-Pricing Suit Blitz Against CVS, PBMs

By P.J. D'Annunzio

Chester County, Pennsylvania, filed its own suit in a sprawling multidistrict litigation against CVS and multiple pharmacy benefit managers and drug companies, claiming the entities worked together to inflate the price of insulin.

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Judge Questions Birkenstock's Delay In Trademark Claim

By Julie Manganis

A Massachusetts federal judge on Thursday appeared skeptical of Birkenstock's claim that it did not know about White Mountain's lookalike sandals and clogs until 2018, pressing counsel on its delay in pursuing trademark infringement claims.

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FCC Rejects SpaceX, Iridium Bids To Change 'Big LEO' Rules

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission's staff has turned down requests from SpaceX and Iridium Communications Inc. to revamp spectrum sharing rules in the "Big LEO" bands that sought to let the companies expand mobile satellite services.

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Series

Officiating Football Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Though they may seem to have little in common, officiating football has sharpened many of the same skills that define effective lawyering in management-side labor and employment: preparation, judgment, composure, credibility and ability to make difficult decisions in real time, says Josh Nadreau at Fisher Phillips.

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DLA Piper Clears Vote To End Verein, Unify Leadership

By Tracey Read

DLA Piper announced Friday that firm partners on both sides of the Atlantic have "overwhelmingly approved" a plan to dissolve its Swiss verein structure effective May 1.

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Exclusive

Judge Albright Reflects On 8 Years Shaping Patent Law

By Dani Kass

U.S. District Judge Alan Albright will be walking away from the Western District of Texas at the end of the summer, ready to head back into patent litigation work. He talked with Law360 on Friday about the rockier elements of his judgeship and lessons he'll take into private practice.

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Commerce Department's General Counsel Departs

By Christine DeRosa

The U.S. Department of Commerce's general counsel has left the agency after just over a year, the agency confirmed on Friday.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

In what may be a first, a federal judge has ordered BJ's Wholesale Club to put an investor's climate-related proxy proposal up for a vote of the shareholders at the company's annual meeting. And a new study shows that more in-house counsel are staying in place despite pay increases slowing amid less competition for talent.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Consovoy McCarthy PLLC, Butler Prather LLP, Bowen Painter LLC and Cannella Snyder LLC lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Fluor Corp. can be held liable for a veteran's state-based injury claims stemming from a 2016 suicide bombing in Afghanistan.

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

By Laura Stewart Liberty

The past week in London has seen a Hong Kong company sue the government and a COVID-19 PPE company linked to Tory peer Michelle Mone, an oligarch bring a fresh claim against a rival in a long-running feud, a rugby league club sue over a canceled mass dance event, and Visa and Mastercard hit with legal action from H&M, Eurostar, and Bang & Olufsen. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

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Oregon Lawyer Ordered To Pay Attorney Fees For Use Of AI

By Matt Perez

An Oregon attorney was sanctioned by a state appellate court for filing a brief containing a fabricated list of authorities because she used generative artificial intelligence, marking the first case in the jurisdiction to present the option of awarding attorney fees as a sanction as opposed to fines payable to the court.

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Akin Can't 'Recast' Appeal As Good-Faith Effort, 9th Circ. Told

By Lauren Berg

A European winemaker slammed attempts by a U.S. importer and its Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP attorneys to "recast a frivolous appeal as a good-faith effort," saying they should have to pay monetary sanctions for pursuing what the Ninth Circuit called a "self-indulgent" appeal of a valid arbitration award.

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Atty, Brother Say Father's Last Will Altered In Secret

By Emily Sawicki

A Blank Rome LLP attorney and his brother have sued the attorney who executed their father's will in New Jersey federal court, alleging the lawyer preyed on their ailing father toward the end of his life to alter his beneficiaries through undue influence, forgery and fraud.

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In Case You Missed It: Hottest Firms And Stories On Law360

For those who missed out, here's a look back at the law firms, stories and expert analyses that generated the most buzz on Law360 last week.

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