Penske Accused Of Scheming To Buy Golden Globes

By Matthew Perlman

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association sued Penske Media Corp. in California federal court Tuesday, accusing the company and owner Jay Penske of orchestrating a scheme to fraudulently acquire the Golden Globe Awards as part of a bid to dominate the market.

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Teva Can't 'Literally Whine' Of Being Held To DOJ Admissions

By Bryan Koenig

A Pennsylvania federal judge has taken Teva to task for trying to avoid being held to its admissions of price-fixing in a $225 million settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, ruling that Humana can use those admissions in one of the first bellwether trials in sprawling multidistrict litigation.

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Zillow Judge Tosses Home Loan Claims, Leaves Door Open

By Nate Beck

A Washington federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit accusing Zillow of paying kickbacks to brokers that directed homebuyers to use the company's mortgage services, in a scheme that plaintiffs argued inflated the overall cost of home purchases and loans.

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Nielsen Says 2nd Circ. Ruling Makes Courts Price Regulators

By Matthew Perlman

Nielsen has asked the Second Circuit to reconsider a ruling upholding an injunction in a case from Cumulus accusing it of tying sales of its national radio ratings data to its local offerings, telling the appeals court the ruling turns judges into price regulators.

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Ill. Judge Questions Construction Rental Antitrust Case

By Lauraann Wood

An Illinois federal judge seemed skeptical Tuesday that a construction equipment rental benchmarking service that allegedly facilitates an illegal rate-fixing scheme among major rental companies includes the sort of enforcement mechanism that would prevent their independent implementation of that data.

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Frasers' €2.6B Hugo Boss Bid Gets EU Merger Green Light

By Dawood Fakhir

Frasers Group PLC said Tuesday that the European Commission has approved its €2.57 billion ($3 billion) takeover bid for German fashion giant Hugo Boss AG, making the offer unconditional.

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UK Gov't Bodies Step Up Pay-For-Delay Claim Against Servier

By Jamie Lennox

Several U.K. government bodies have told a London tribunal that Servier should pay damages for allegedly breaching European Union antitrust laws by restricting supplies of a blood pressure drug, causing the bodies to overpay.

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CMA Wins Drug Price Appeal But £100M Fines Face Review

By Eddie Beaver

An appeals court upheld on Tuesday findings by a competition tribunal that a group of pharmaceutical companies abused its dominant position to overcharge for a life-saving adrenal drug, but sent approximately £100 million ($133 million) in penalties back for reconsideration.

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Don't Let Players Add To 5th-Year Eligibility Suit, NCAA Asks

By David Steele

The NCAA wants a Tennessee federal judge to deny a bid by a group of athletes to amend their eligibility lawsuit, including a challenge to its new five-year rule, saying they are not entitled to play for another season.

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Eating Disorder Pros Group Ducks Antitrust Suit For Good

By Bryan Koenig

An Illinois federal judge permanently dismissed a proposed antitrust class action Monday accusing the International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals of forcing specialists into expensive group memberships to obtain important certification, concluding the plaintiffs haven't shown that the organization has the needed market power.

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Houston's Race-Conscious Contracting Program Struck Down

By Spencer Brewer

A Texas federal judge on Tuesday ruled that Houston's program awarding public contracts on a race-conscious basis violated the Fourteenth Amendment in the first federal challenge to such a program following the U.S. Supreme Court's 2023 decision striking down affirmative action admissions policies.

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Texas Panel Says Sysco Can't Arbitrate Driver Injury Claim

By Mike Curley

A Texas appeals court on Tuesday found that Sysco USA I Inc. cannot compel arbitration in a delivery driver's injury suit, as the driver is exempt from the Federal Arbitration Act as a transportation worker.

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Ticket Broker Pays $300K To Settle Concert Resale Claims

By Alex Lawson

A Georgia ticket broker has agreed to pay $300,000 to settle allegations that it used a fleet of intermediaries and proxies to hoard concert tickets for artists like Metallica and Benson Boone and resell them for inflated prices.

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Sullivan & Cromwell Rehires DOJ Lawyer For Antitrust Work

By Jack Rodgers

A former U.S. Department of Justice trial attorney who worked on the government's successful challenge of the Northeast Alliance partnership between American Airlines and JetBlue has rejoined Sullivan & Cromwell LLP as a partner in the firm's antitrust practice.

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Assessing DOJ Antitrust's New, Faster Merger Review Option

The U.S. Justice Department Antitrust Division's recently announced targeted second request option and new model timing signal a commercially friendly stance and a departure from the prior administration's position, say attorneys at Paul Weiss.

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Trader In BigLaw Deal-Tipping Scheme To Plead Guilty

By Chris Villani

A Florida resident is set to plead guilty to his alleged role in a sweeping scheme to trade on insider information about impending acquisitions that was stolen from major law firms, according to a court filing Tuesday.

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Simpson Thacher Stock Work Hurt 2 Companies, Jury Told

By Madison Arnold

The chief financial officer for an insurance company told a Florida jury Tuesday that a stock drop for Patriot National Inc. — which is suing Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP for malpractice for allegedly putting together a shoddy securities offering — dramatically affected his own business as well.

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AT&T Whistleblower Told To Cut Facts From Ethics Case Filing

By Sue Reisinger

Former AT&T in-house counsel and whistleblower Theodore Marcus has been asked to delete part of his response to professional misconduct charges pending against him in Washington, D.C., because the filing allegedly contains privileged information.

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1st Circ. Asked To Save Mayer Brown $21M Fee Bid In RI Suit

By Linda Chiem

The American Trucking Associations told the First Circuit that its attorneys at Mayer Brown LLP reasonably justified their request for $21 million in fees and costs after securing "substantial" wins in long-running litigation over Rhode Island's truck tolling program, disputing a district court's determination that the trucking trade group wasn't actually a "prevailing party."

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Winston Taylor Seeks Sanction Against Ex-Client Hunter Biden

By Rae Ann Varona

Winston Taylor urged a D.C. state court on Monday to sanction its former client Hunter Biden in its legal bills collection suit, saying the former president's son destroyed Signal communications that would have proved he understood that he owes the law firm more than $50,000.

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Court Is In Session Whenever A Judge Says It Is, 6th Circ. Told

By Susan Smiley

Court is wherever and whenever a judge says it is, counsel for a Detroit judge told a Sixth Circuit panel Tuesday, arguing that subjecting a student to a mock arrest and trial because she fell asleep during a field trip was within his jurisdiction.

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Senate Confirms Jay Clayton As National Intelligence Chief

By Madeline Lyskawa

The U.S. Senate voted Tuesday to confirm Jay Clayton as director of national intelligence, two weeks after Clayton, the former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, refused to answer who he thought won the 2020 election during his confirmation hearing.

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Queens Defenders Head Gets 3.5 Years For Looting The Nonprofit

By Pete Brush

A Brooklyn federal judge on Tuesday sentenced the former director of the Queens Defenders to more than 3.5 years in prison after the longtime attorney admitted to a course of embezzlement that destroyed the group dedicated to legal services for the poor.

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