Zillow Must Arbitrate MLS Claims, Compass Claims Paused

By Matthew Perlman

An Illinois federal court has refused Zillow's request for an injunction in its case accusing a Chicago-area multiple listing service of working with Compass to block access to home listings and sent the claims against the MLS to arbitration.

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DOJ Fights Acquittal Motion Following Okla. Bid-Fixing Verdict

By Ganesh Setty

The U.S. Department of Justice is urging an Oklahoma federal court to reject an acquittal bid from a man convicted of participating in an erosion control company's bid-rigging conspiracy that allegedly affected over $100 million in publicly funded transportation construction contracts.

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FTC Deal Bars Gunmakers From Overlapping Board Members

By Bryan Koenig

Beretta Holding SA is swearing off putting any of its own executives on fellow gunmaker Ruger's board under a Federal Trade Commission settlement announced Wednesday addressing competitive overlap concerns from a more than $100 million deal that will increase Beretta's stake in the company from 9.95% to up to 25%.

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Court Pauses Fox's Discovery Order In Newsmax Antitrust Suit

By Carolina Bolado

A Florida federal judge has paused an order forcing Fox News to produce its top carriage agreements with cable and streaming providers in Newsmax's antitrust suit against Fox — an order that, in Fox's view, must wait until Fox's motion to dismiss the case is resolved.

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Brief

$11M Fragrance Price-Fixing Deal Gets Final OK

By George Woolston

A New Jersey federal judge Wednesday signed off on an $11 million "icebreaker" deal between a group of consumers and International Flavors and Fragrances Inc. in sprawling price-fixing antitrust litigation against four major fragrance ingredient makers.

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EU Threatens To Block MMG's $500M Nickel Mine Deal

By Bryan Koenig

European Union antitrust enforcers took the next step Wednesday toward blocking MMG's planned purchase of Anglo American's nickel business out of concern the buyer, which is majority owned by the Chinese government, could divert supplies of an alloy needed for stainless steel production.

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EU OKs £1.3B Tinicum-Blackstone Aerospace Parts Deal

By Irene Madongo

The European Commission said Wednesday it has approved Blackstone and Tinicum's joint acquisition of AeroFlow Technologies and British company Senior PLC in an approximately £1.3 billion ($1.75 billion) transaction that the U.S. buyers expect will boost their aerospace and industrial components portfolio.

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Google Wins Approval For £260M Deal To End App-Fee Claim

By Joanne Faulkner

The record £260 million ($350 million) settlement reached by Google with U.K. app developers won approval from the Competition Appeal Tribunal on Wednesday, ending a collective action over allegedly excessive commissions.

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Brief

CMA Launches Probe Into McCormick's $45B Unilever Deal

By Tom Fish

The U.K.'s antitrust watchdog said Wednesday it has formally begun its review of the planned $44.8 billion acquisition by McCormick & Co. Inc. of most of the global food business of its rival Unilever PLC.

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Portions Of DC Expert Report Nixed In Amazon Antitrust Case

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

A D.C. court has granted Amazon's request to strike parts of an expert report supporting the district's antitrust lawsuit against the e-commerce giant.

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Nielsen Says Cumulus Order Illegally Dictates Sale Terms

By Jared Foretek

A Nielsen Co. attorney on Wednesday blasted a federal judge's order that he said dictated the terms of the company's sale of nationwide radio ratings to Cumulus Media, telling a Second Circuit panel that the new order was "completely different" from an injunction the appellate court had upheld.

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Consumer Groups Ask States To Probe Zillow, Housing Market

By Nate Beck

More than a dozen consumer advocacy groups urged state authorities Wednesday to work together to probe Zillow and Redfin's compliance with an August deal to end a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit, and to investigate other practices blamed for driving up housing costs such as private "pocket" listings by broker Compass Inc.

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Kroger Faces Skepticism In Bid To Slash Wash. AG's Fee Win

By Rachel Riley

A Washington appellate judge expressed skepticism Wednesday at Kroger's bid to dismiss or reduce the state's $28.4 million fee award for successfully challenging the proposed merger with Albertsons, saying Kroger doesn't know how the Washington State Attorney General's Office split the work with the lead law firm that handled the bench trial.

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States Say DOJ's RealPage Deal Doesn't Affect Their Claims

By Isaac Monterose

A group of states told a North Carolina federal court to reject property management software company RealPage Inc.'s argument that its rent price-fixing settlement with the federal government moots the states' antitrust claims.

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Goldman Unit Funded Compass Lexecon Raid, Suit Says

By Katryna Perera

FTI Consulting Inc. and its subsidiary Compass Lexecon have asked a Maryland federal judge to add a Goldman Sachs unit to a long-running suit alleging two former Compass Lexecon employees broke away from the firm and founded a competitor that unlawfully poached clients and talent from the FTI subsidiary using capital from Goldman.

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Software Execs Sank Nike Deal Before Joining Rival, Suit Says

By Julie Manganis

Event software company JRNI Inc. says two former executives conspired to steer its biggest client, Nike, to a rival, then left to join that competitor, according to a complaint filed Tuesday in Massachusetts state court. 

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Joe Gibbs Racing Accuses Ex-Director Of Defying Injunction

By Hayley Fowler

Joe Gibbs Racing's former competition director has continued to do work for another NASCAR team that mimics his old job duties in violation of court orders restricting his employment responsibilities, the superteam has alleged in a bid to have him and his new employer held in civil contempt.

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Apple Backs Its $132K Fee Ask Over 'Bad Faith' Subpoenas

By Bonnie Eslinger

Apple has urged a California federal magistrate judge to grant its $132,700 attorney fee request as a sanction against plaintiff consumers' lead lawyer in antitrust litigation claiming Google muscles out rival search engines, but said Apple's counsel doesn't want to disclose their "highly and competitively sensitive" negotiated legal rates.

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Express Scripts Seeks To Exit AIDS Group's Drug Rate Suit

By Rachel Riley

Express Scripts called on a Washington federal judge to toss a lawsuit accusing it of using its market power to bully the AIDS Healthcare Foundation into accepting lower reimbursement rates for life-saving drugs, contending Tuesday that the case rehashes allegations a Missouri federal court has already rejected twice.

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State Farm Plans Calif. Return For Fire-Hardened Homes

By Hope Patti

More than three years after announcing it would no longer sell new homeowners insurance policies in California, State Farm has filed plans to begin writing new policies for Golden State homeowners who have made their properties more resilient to wildfire, according to news releases issued Wednesday.

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Crowell & Moring Adds Ex-DOJ, FTC Antitrust Attys In DC, NY

By Alison Knezevich

Crowell & Moring LLP on Wednesday announced the hiring of two former enforcement attorneys from the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission for its antitrust and competition group, with the firm saying it plans more growth of the practice soon.

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DOJ Letter Rescission Portends Proxy Firm Antitrust Risk

The U.S. Justice Department's recent withdrawal of its 1987 business review letter issued to Institutional Shareholder Services, which shielded certain proxy advisory activities from anticompetitive enforcement, likely foreshadows renewed antitrust scrutiny of proxy advisory firms, say attorneys at Paul Weiss.

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What Meta Damages Ruling Means For Data Abuse Claims

The recent Court of Appeal ruling in Meta v. Gormsen found that user damages might be awarded for abuse of a dominant market position, raising the possibility of a novel type of competition claim against U.K. companies accused of misusing personal data, say lawyers at Macfarlanes.

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Series

Law School's Missed Lessons: Cultivating Good Judgment

Law schools generally overlook the role that solid judgment skills play in real-world practice, but attorneys can bridge the gap by strengthening their abilities to assess a case’s strengths and weaknesses, develop and execute effective strategies, and provide clear recommendations to clients, says Manny Caixeiro at Venable.

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Burford Exec, Holland & Knight Adviser Open AI-Native Firm

By Andrea Keckley

Two veterans of the legal industry announced on Wednesday that they have teamed up to launch FairPlay Law, an AI-native firm based in Manhattan and focused on representing employees.

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Michael Best Combines With NY-Based Kane Kessler

By Kevin Penton

Michael Best & Friedrich LLP announced Wednesday that it is combining with New York-based firm Kane Kessler PC, adding 36 attorneys and a Big Apple presence to a firm that ranked 143rd on Law360's list of the nation's largest law firms.

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Protesters Say Feds' Fight Shows Need For Misconduct Probe

By Lauraann Wood

The U.S. government's opposition to a special investigation of prosecutorial misconduct that "poisoned" a now-dismissed criminal conspiracy case suggests Chicago prosecutors are still shielding critical details regarding the extent of official communications preceding the prosecution, underscoring the probe's necessity, protesters argued Tuesday.

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Newman Saga Prompts Bill To Limit Judicial Suspensions

By Courtney Bublé

The long-running saga over Federal Circuit Judge Pauline Newman's fitness to remain on the court has exposed "major flaws" in the judicial accountability system, according to a Republican member of the House who introduced a bill Wednesday to reform it.

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Brief

Senate Panel Weighs 6 Trump Judicial Picks From Red States

By Courtney Bublé

Six nominees for U.S. district judge appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday for their nomination hearing.

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