How difficult is it to get an antitrust conspiracy case to a jury when there is no direct evidence of the alleged conspiracy? An August 3 decision of the federal district court in Chicago in a long-running class action against paper companies for conspiring to raise prices for containerboard provides an example of the challenge. Fifteen price increase…
With just two months left in the U.S. Supreme Court’s current term, it’s a good time to take a look at the handful of petitions in antitrust cases that remain on the docket. Since the first Monday in October 2016, the Court has yet to grant any petitions for review in antitrust cases. However, three…
Last July, the Department of Justice Antitrust Division filed two actions, challenging proposed mergers that would have reduced the country’s “big five” health insurers to three. Bench trials have been held in these matters. On Monday, Judge John Bates of the federal district court in Washington, D.C. preliminary enjoined Aetna Inc.’s $37 billion attempt to…
As 2016 comes to a close, a number of important trends in antitrust have emerged that will likely have lasting effects on competition law enforcement in the coming years. A new administration will put its mark on federal antitrust policy, but the following five developments witnessed at the Department of Justice Antitrust Division and FTC…
There has been a lot of speculation about what impact the election of Donald J. Trump will have on antitrust enforcement over the next four to eight years. Some commenters have suggested that Trump’s rhetoric on the campaign trail signals dramatic changes. Candidate Trump spoke of blocking AT&T Inc.’s proposed acquisition of Time Warner Inc….
Long-stalled efforts proposed by some federal lawmakers to bring “reform” to the FTC will likely be reintroduced in the 115th Congress. With a Republican majority in both the House of Representatives and Senate, and President Donald J. Trump in the White House, measures that could not get sufficient support in in the current Congress and…
Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court denied review of a handful of petitions in antitrust cases. Since that time, new petitions for certiorari have been filed in competition law cases with the hope that the High Court will add them to its docket. At this point, only one antitrust case is set to be…
Within the last week, the federal district court in Washington, D.C. has approved a U.S. consent decree resolving Department of Justice Antitrust Division concerns over public relations software provider Cision’s acquisition of PR Newswire, a company that distributes company press releases to the media. Because Cision is owned by private equity firm GTCR Fund X/A…
The Department of Justice Antitrust Division earlier this week rejected efforts by performing rights organizations American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) and Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) and the two largest music publishers to relax the terms of antitrust consent decrees that govern the collective licensing of musical works for public performance. The modifications to…
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court wrapped up its regular business for the October 2015 term, but not before deciding to put an antitrust case on the docket for the next term. In addition, a few antitrust petitions remain on the docket that could potentially lead to additional antitrust issues being addressed by the Court…
