Google Shakes Suit Over Search Engine Default Agreements

By Bonnie Eslinger

A proposed consumer class action accusing Google of monopolizing the online search market has been tossed by a California federal judge who said the plaintiffs didn't provide evidence showing that "better" options could have been available if Google hadn't struck default search engine deals with Apple and other companies.

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Patients' Texas Anesthesia Rollup Suit Trimmed

By Bryan Koenig

A Texas federal judge offered patients a mixed bag Wednesday in a proposed class action accusing U.S. Anesthesia Partners Inc. of anticompetitively buying up anesthesia practices in the state and fixing prices, dismissing claims based on ambulatory surgery center services while preserving allegations based on hospitals.

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Visa, Mastercard Hit With Antitrust Suit Over Post-2019 Fees

By Nadia Dreid

Even though Visa and Mastercard have paid out billions to escape litigation accusing them of plaguing merchants with predatory "swipe fees," the credit titans have not stopped inflating the fees businesses pay every time someone swipes their card, a new lawsuit alleges.

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Google Ad Tech MDL Teed Up For Trial Largely Intact

By Bryan Koenig

Gannett, the Daily Mail and a certified class of website publishers scored a major win with a New York federal court ruling largely refusing to let Google scrap antitrust allegations targeting its advertising placement technology business in sprawling multidistrict litigation.

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Merrill, But Not BofA, Must Face Cash Sweep Rates Suit

By Lauren Berg

Bank of America escaped account holders' allegations that they were paid unreasonably low interest rates under automatic cash sweep programs, but its wealth management division, Merrill Lynch, must still face most of the proposed class claims, according to a New York federal judge's ruling.

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Monthly Merger Review Snapshot

By Matthew Perlman

State enforcers settled their case challenging Paramount Skydance's planned $110 billion purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery, while the U.S. Department of Justice probes Fox's planned $22 billion deal for Roku and regulators review massive deals in the energy and railroad sectors.

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Brief

Customers Ask 9th Circ. To Halt Paramount-Warner Bros. Deal

By Nadia Dreid

Streaming service customers are asking the Ninth Circuit to step in and stop Paramount Skydance's planned $110 billion purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery until a court can decide if their antitrust suit challenging the merger will be dismissed.

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UK Antitrust Watchdog Greenlights E.ON's Acquisition Of Ovo

By Irene Madongo

Britain's competition regulator said Thursday it has cleared the planned acquisition by E.ON SE of retail energy supplier Ovo after carrying out an initial probe into the transaction.

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DOJ's RealPage Deal Doesn't End States' Antitrust Claims

By Matthew Perlman

A North Carolina federal court has refused to toss antitrust claims from state enforcers accusing RealPage of providing software that allows residential building owners to inflate rents, despite RealPage's settlement in the case with the U.S. Department of Justice.

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Janssen Secures Temporary Block Against Arthritis Biosimilar

By Adam Lidgett

A Delaware federal judge has blocked Accord BioPharma from manufacturing a biosimilar version of Janssen's arthritis treatment Simponi while the Johnson & Johnson unit's patent lawsuit plays out.

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Google Beats Online Publishers' AI Overviews Antitrust Suit

By Craig Clough

A D.C. federal judge on Wednesday dismissed antitrust suits from Chegg Inc. and Penske Media Corp. against Google, finding that their central claims that the search engine giant coerces publishers into supplying free content for its artificial intelligence products "fail to get out of the starting gate." 

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Ex-Actavis Exec Escapes Some Drug Price-Fixing Claims

By Carla Baranauckas

A Connecticut federal judge has dismissed a swath of claims against a former executive of Actavis and Taro in the generic drug price‑fixing litigation brought by state enforcers, holding that evidence was insufficient to prove he joined several alleged single‑drug conspiracies.

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Kraft Wheat Traders Lose Class Status, Keep Antitrust Claim

By Lauren Berg

Kraft Foods has convinced a Chicago federal judge to decertify two classes of investors and toss most of their decade-old claims accusing the food conglomerate and its snack food spinoff of manipulating wheat market commodities, but a jury will have to decide if it ran afoul of antitrust law.

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AbbVie Gets Humira Antitrust Suit Trimmed, But Not Tossed

By Rae Ann Varona

An Illinois federal judge tossed all but one claim in a sheet metal worker health plan's putative class action against AbbVie for allegedly causing artificially inflated prices for the rheumatoid arthritis drug Humira, saying the plan sufficiently alleged AbbVie unlawfully stifled competition in the adalimumab market.

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Tennis Groups Can't Duck Players' Antitrust Suit

By Matthew Perlman

A New York federal court has refused to toss a lawsuit brought by tennis players and a players association accusing tournament operators and the sport's governing bodies of blocking competition from rival tournaments.

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Judge 'Flummoxed' By Forum Claim In IQVIA's Poaching Suit

By Hayley Fowler

A North Carolina Business Court judge said Thursday that he was "flummoxed" by clinical research giant IQVIA Holdings Inc.'s argument for not enforcing its own forum selection clause against four top executives who decamped for a competitor.

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Fed. Circ. Backs Galderma In Injection Training IP Case

By Elliot Weld

The Federal Circuit on Thursday affirmed an order clearing Galderma SA of a medical training startup's accusations that it misappropriated trade secrets related to an injection training system and derailed what could have been a lucrative deal with Allergan PLC.

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Quince Gets Williams Sonoma's False Ad Suit Axed For Now

By Hailey Konnath

A California federal judge threw out Williams-Sonoma Inc.'s lawsuit accusing online retailer Quince of trying to dupe consumers into believing its goods are the same as Williams Sonoma's products at discounted prices, though the judge gave Williams Sonoma the opportunity to take another stab at its complaint.

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Mapping The Shifting Landscape Of Algorithmic Pricing Laws

As state legislative activity and federal developments abound in algorithmic pricing practice, companies steering through this regulatory patchwork should consider a number of key issues, including status, use and exemptions, say attorneys at Covington.

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Testing AI's Promise For Large-Scale Document Review

Our document-review comparison of attorneys' responsiveness and issue coding decisions versus predictions generated by artificial intelligence across 1,600 documents suggests that these tools can offer a reasonable and reliable basis for improved discovery workflows, provided lawyers understand where guardrails are needed, say attorneys at Redgrave.

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UCLA Law Is Latest DOJ Target Over Race Bias In Admissions

By Dorothy Atkins

The U.S. Justice Department's Civil Rights Division accused the UCLA School of Law of discriminating against white and Asian students in its admissions process in a letter sent to the school's counsel Thursday, following multiple other similar letters that the DOJ sent to other higher-education institutions.

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DOJ Outlines New Corporate Fraud Enforcement Priorities

By Phillip Bantz

Federal prosecutors "must place great weight" on a new list of factors when considering potential charges in corporate fraud cases, including whether the matters involve government programs, threats to national security or immigration offenses, according to a memo released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Justice.

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Trump Announces Judicial Noms For 5th Circ., NC

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he's nominating Todd Butler, a managing partner at Phelps Dunbar LLP, to serve as a judge on the Fifth Circuit. 

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Blackburn Holds Up White House's Tenn. Judge Pick

By Courtney Bublé

The White House is standing by its nominee for a federal judgeship in the Eastern District of Tennessee amid a holdup from Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., a White House official confirmed to Law360 on Thursday.

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Richards Layton Atty Confirmed To Join Del. Chancery Bench

By Rose Krebs

Delaware's Senate on Thursday confirmed a Richards Layton & Finger PA director to a 12-year term as a vice chancellor on the Chancery Court.

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FBT Gibbons Beats DQ Bid In Suit Over Cigna Payments

By George Woolston

A New Jersey state court judge has rejected a plastic surgery practice's bid to disqualify FBT Gibbons LLP from representing Cigna and a group of employer-sponsored health plans in its suit over the insurer's alleged underpayments, finding the bid appears more of an effort to gain an advantage rather than one to protect the interests of any client.

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Roundup

The Top In-House Hires Of September

By Michele Gorman

Legal department hires during the past month included high-profile appointments at MSG Sports, Nestle and the Associated Press. Here, Law360 Pulse looks at some of the top in-house announcements from September.

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Judge Reinstates Rogoff As Seattle US Atty After Trump Firing

By Rachel Riley

A Washington federal judge issued an order from the bench on Thursday reinstating Roger Rogoff as U.S. attorney for the Western District of Washington, finding that President Donald Trump exceeded his authority when he fired him in July.

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Trump Says Copyright Chief Can't Stay In Office Amid Appeal

By Adam Lidgett

The Trump administration is urging the D.C. Circuit to let it remove U.S. Copyright Office leader Shira Perlmutter, arguing that the U.S. Supreme Court's decision protecting Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook for now does not entitle Perlmutter to remain in office while her firing challenge proceeds.

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