A California federal jury on Thursday ordered Medtronic to pay nearly $382 million to business rival Applied Medical for antitrust violations, finding the medical device giant illegally used its monopoly power to crush competition in the market for a type of surgical instrument called an advanced bipolar device.
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FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2026 Law360 iOS App Law360 Android App Follow Law360 on Facebook Follow Law360 on LinkedIn Follow Law360 on Twitter

TOP NEWS

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Medtronic Hit With $382M Antitrust Verdict Over Bundling

By Craig Clough

A California federal jury on Thursday ordered Medtronic to pay nearly $382 million to business rival Applied Medical for antitrust violations, finding the medical device giant illegally used its monopoly power to crush competition in the market for a type of surgical instrument called an advanced bipolar device.

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7th Circ. Deems Pilgrim's Price-Fix Settlement Non-Binding

By Hailey Konnath

The Seventh Circuit on Thursday held that Pilgrim's Pride did not definitively settle chicken and other protein price-fixing claims with Sysco via a brief email acceptance and unsigned agreement, ruling that "a barebones email exchange" and unsigned agreement wasn't enough to formally resolve the dispute.

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David Protein Gets Ingredient Supply Antitrust Claims Tossed

By Matthew Perlman

A New York federal court dismissed a lawsuit from several low-calorie food producers accusing protein bar-maker David Protein of refusing to sell them a fat replacement ingredient after it purchased the ingredient's only supplier.

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Fake Case Pulled From Toshiba Malicious Prosecution Suit

By Bryan Koenig

A former printer toner salesman is trying to salvage his lawsuit against Toshiba after the company flagged nonexistent citations, apologizing to the California federal court in a corrected brief Thursday defending claims that the electronics company manufactured a criminal case against him and others to maintain an illegal monopoly.

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DOJ Urges Court To Reject Live Nation's View Of Meta Ruling

By Matthew Perlman

Enforcers told a New York federal court to reject Live Nation's interpretation of a ruling in an antitrust case against Meta Platforms, saying that claims against the live entertainment giant do not have to accuse it of charging different venues different prices.

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PGA Tour Didn't Price Gouge Rivals' Atty, Fla. Judges Rule

By David Steele

A bid to overturn the dismissal of a suit accusing the PGA Tour of inflating its event prices as part of a plot against golfers from the rival LIV tour was turned away Thursday by a Florida state appeals court.

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Law360 Seeks Members For Its 2026 Editorial Boards

Law360 is looking for avid readers of our publications to serve as members of our 2026 editorial advisory boards.

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INTERNATIONAL

Apple Avoids Heightened EU Rules For Ads, Maps

By Bryan Koenig

The European Commission announced Thursday that Apple's Ads and Maps features aren't used enough in the European Union to warrant imposing interoperability and other obligations foisted on other services from Apple and other major technology companies deemed "gatekeepers" under the Digital Markets Act.

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Amazon Attacks £4B Class Actions Over 'Outrageous' Funding

By Sophia Dourou

Amazon sought permission on Thursday to challenge two class actions totaling more than £4 billion ($5.4 billion) over its unfair treatment of third-party sellers, arguing that the Competition Appeal Tribunal was wrong to certify the claims without grappling with their "outrageous" funding agreements.

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LITIGATION

Consumers Fight To Keep Frozen Potato Antitrust Suit Alive

By Lauraann Wood

Consumer groups pursuing price-fixing allegations against the nation's leading frozen potato product producers and certain others have urged an Illinois federal judge to let their claims proceed, arguing they've plausibly outlined a "classic antitrust story" that should be allowed to enter the evidence-gathering stage.

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Tenn. QB Gets Temporary Reprieve From NCAA Eligibility Rule

By Elaine Briseño

A state court granted Tennessee Volunteers quarterback Joey Aguilar a temporary restraining order prohibiting the NCAA from enforcing its eligibility rules, finding the organization would suffer no harm if he plays another season, but the athlete otherwise would.

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Judge Affirms Health Cos.' Sanctions For Witness Omission

By Celeste Bott

An Illinois federal judge rejected a "vague and unsupported" bid by a home healthcare company accused of violating federal kickback laws to reconsider sanctions she ordered for failing to disclose witnesses, saying the motion "wastes everyone's time" and scolding the defendants for "impugning the character and professionalism of an able magistrate judge."

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Deel Loses Bid To DQ Quinn Emanuel In Trade Secrets Fight

By Lauren Berg

Payroll and human resources company Deel Inc. cannot have Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP disqualified from representing its competitor Rippling in a trade secrets fight, a Delaware judge ruled Thursday, saying there is no "clear conflict" that would require booting the BigLaw firm.

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Judge Caps Off 'Beer Law' Trademark Case

By Elliot Weld

A federal judge has dismissed a trademark lawsuit from a North Carolina law firm that brands itself as the "Beer Law Center" against a Colorado firm that calls itself the "Beer Law HQ," finding the latter company lacked sufficient connections to North Carolina for the court to hear the case.

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Ga. Law Firm's CTA Challenge 'Hypothetical,' Feds Argue

By Chart Riggall

The U.S. Treasury Department has asked a federal judge to toss a Georgia lawyer's suit alleging that the 2021 Corporate Transparency Act could force him to violate attorney-client privilege, arguing the suit is based on future "hypothetical changes" to the federal policy of nonenforcement.

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NC Biz Court Bulletin: Dual Representation DQ, Biting Censure

By Hayley Fowler

The North Carolina Business Court kicked off 2026 with a flurry of rulings and a few rebukes from the bench, including partially disqualifying counsel in a restaurant mismanagement melee and censuring a solo attorney who sought to circumvent the specialized superior court's rules.

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EXPERT ANALYSIS

Bipartisan Enforcement Is Rising In Consumer Finance

Activity over the past year suggests a bipartisan state enforcement wave is rippling across the consumer finance industry, which follows a blueprint set out by former Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra, who notably now leads a Democratic Attorneys General Association working group, say attorneys at Hudson Cook.

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Series

Teaching Logic Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Teaching middle and high school students the skills to untangle complicated arguments and identify faulty reasoning has made me reacquaint myself with the defined structure of thought, reminding me why logic should remain foundational in the practice of law, says Tom Barrow at Woods Rogers.

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LEGAL INDUSTRY

Meet New Paul Weiss Chairman Scott Barshay

By Anna Sanders

New Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP chair Scott Barshay is a rainmaker who most recently led the corporate department, guiding clients through some of the largest transactions in recent history after joining the firm's New York office a decade ago.

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Judge Who Resigned To Criticize Trump Had Faced Inquiry

By Chris Villani

Former Massachusetts U.S. District Judge Mark L. Wolf was the subject of an inquiry into potential misconduct when he announced his November resignation, a decision he said at the time was motivated by a desire to speak out against the Trump administration, according to a source familiar with the matter.

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Judge Says AI Errors Show Atty Can't 'Learn' From Mistakes

By Ivan Moreno

A New York federal judge concluded that an attorney who repeatedly submitted filings with false AI-generated citations must be punished with case-terminating sanctions against a client he was defending in a trademark lawsuit, saying Thursday that the lawyer "has not, and apparently cannot, learn from his mistakes."

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NY Times Article Excerpts Admitted In Goldstein Trial

By Jared Foretek

Federal prosecutors pressing their case against SCOTUSblog co-founder Thomas Goldstein for tax evasion and misleading statements on mortgage applications were finally able on Thursday to present jurors with key statements the U.S. Supreme Court lawyer made to legal journalist Jeffrey Toobin for a long New York Times Magazine article.

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Texas Atty Must Explain AI 'Misuse' In Employment Case

By Lauren Berg

A prominent civil rights attorney representing a University of Texas at Austin nurse in an employment discrimination case must explain why he shouldn't be sanctioned "for his apparent misuse of artificial intelligence" to research and write a brief, a Texas federal judge ruled.

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Ex-Alex Jones Atty Asks Conn. Justices To Nix Suspension

By Brian Steele

A Connecticut attorney who formerly represented conspiracy broadcaster Alex Jones in a $1.4 billion defamation case has asked the state's highest court to consider whether it was proper for a judge to suspend his law license for violating a protective order governing Sandy Hook families' personal information.

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State Bar Of Texas Declines To Open Grievance On Ramey

By Emily Sawicki

The State Bar of Texas has declined to open a grievance against patent litigator William P. Ramey III after a San Francisco federal court sanctioned him and his firm, Ramey LLP, for practicing law in California without a license.

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Wash. Lawyer Faces Sanction Threat Over Alleged AI Errors

By Ben Adlin

A federal judge has ordered an attorney in Washington state to submit a sworn declaration explaining why she shouldn't be sanctioned for what opposing counsel claimed are dozens of artificial intelligence "hallucinations" across multiple case filings.

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McCarter & English Wants To Torpedo $22M Malpractice Suit

By Aaron Keller

McCarter & English LLP on Thursday asked a Connecticut Superior Court judge to sink a $22.3 million professional negligence lawsuit by two struggling insurers, saying failures to provide documents or knowledgeable people to testify during pretrial depositions warrant a "harsh" end to the nearly decade-old case.

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Trump's Seattle US Atty Stays On For Now Via Title Swap

By Rachel Riley

Trump administration appointee Charles Neil Floyd will continue to be the Western District of Washington's top federal prosecutor for now, under the new title of "First Assistant U.S. Attorney," after the deadline passed Wednesday for the U.S. Senate to confirm the interim appointment.

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Klobuchar Alarmed By Exodus Of Prosecutors In Minnesota

By Courtney Bublé

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., on Thursday said she was alarmed by the surge of resignations by federal prosecutors in her state following the shooting deaths of two Minnesotans by immigration agents.

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Judiciary Backs Bill To Let Judges Carry Concealed Guns

By Courtney Bublé

The federal judiciary has come out in support of a Republican-led bill to allow judges and prosecutors to carry concealed firearms across state lines, according to a letter obtained by Law360.

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Ex-Prosecutors Call For Independent Probes Of ICE Killings

By Rose Krebs

A coalition of former federal prosecutors and civil rights attorneys is urging U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to ensure that the U.S. Department of Justice allows for "transparent, unbiased and impartial" investigations into the killings in Minneapolis last month of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal immigration enforcement agents.

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Promo that reads 2025 Practice Groups of the Year

LAW FIRMS IN TODAY'S NEWS

Arete Law Group

Burks & Ogle

Cleary Gottlieb

Cohen Milstein

Consovoy McCarthy

Cravath Swaine

Dalton & Associates PA

Feldman & Associates PLLC

Freed Kanner

Fried Frank

Goldstein & Russell

Gordon Rees

Gustafson Gluek

Hagens Berman

Hogan Lovells

Hudson Cook

Hunton Andrews

Kellogg Hansen

Kindwald Law Offices

King & Spalding

Kirkland & Ellis

Knobbe Martens

Koffsky Schwalb

Kroger Gardis

Latham & Watkins

Lockridge Grindal

Manning Gross

Maschoff Brennan

McCarter & English

Monckton Chambers

Monico & Spevack

Munger Tolles

Murphy Ball Stratton

Parton Law PLLC

Paul Weiss

Pearson Warshaw

Quinn Emanuel

Ramey LLP

Reed Smith

Scott&Scott

Seeger Weiss

Sidley Austin

Silver Golub

Skadden Arps

Spizzirri Law

Todd & Weld

Whitcomb Selinsky

Wiggin & Dana

Wilkinson Stekloff

Winston & Strawn

Woods Rogers

COMPANIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

3G Capital

Amazon.com Inc.

American Bar Association

Anadarko Petroleum Corp.

Anheuser-Busch Inbev SA/NV

Apollo Global Management LLC

Apple Inc.

Applied Medical Resources Corp.

Arity LLC

Atrium Health

Barron's

Bayer AG

Betco Inc.

Booking.com BV

Burford Capital LLC

ByteDance Ltd.

Chevron Corp.

DP World Ltd.

Deel Inc.

Gelman, Rosenberg & Freedman

Google LLC

Harris Teeter Supermarkets, Inc.

Instagram Inc.

International Business Machines Corp.

Jam City Inc.

Jana Partners LLC

Lamb Weston Holdings Inc.

Live Nation Entertainment Inc.

Marriott International Inc.

McCain Foods USA Inc.

McDonald's Corp.

Medtronic PLC

Meta Platforms Inc.

Microsoft Corp.

Molson Coors Beverage Co.

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

National Collegiate Athletic Association

Noble Energy Inc.

Outliers Inc.

Overstock.com Inc.

PGA TOUR Inc.

Pershing Square Capital Management LP

Pilgrim's Pride Corp.

Red Hat Inc.

Redner's Markets Inc.

Renesas Electronics Corp.

Renewable Energy Group Inc.

SABMiller

Starbucks Corp.

State Bar of Texas

Sysco Corp.

The Charles Schwab Corp.

The Golf Channel LLC

The J.R. Simplot Company

The Kraft Heinz Co.

The New York Times Co.

TicketNetwork Inc.

TikTok Inc.

Toshiba Corp.

Tractor Supply Co.

Truist Financial Corp.

Ultimate Fighting Championship Ltd.

Unilever PLC

United Airlines Holdings Inc.

Walmart Inc.

World Wrestling Entertainment Inc.

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

California Privacy Protection Agency

Competition Appeal Tribunal

Connecticut Insurance Department

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

European Commission

European Union

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Federal Trade Commission

Financial Crimes Enforcement Network

Florida Supreme Court

Internal Revenue Service

Judicial Conference of the United States

Minnesota Attorney General's Office

North Carolina Attorney General's Office

Texas Attorney General's Office

U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland

U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Minnesota

U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Washington

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

U.S. Department of Homeland Security

U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. Department of the Treasury

U.S. District Court for the Central District of California

U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland

U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia

U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas

U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

U.S. Senate

U.S. Supreme Court

UK Court of Appeal

United States District Court for the District of Colorado

United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana