On April 11, 2018, the European Commission published a proposed new EU law as part of a package of consumer protection measures. The proposed new law would introduce the first Europe-wide consumer class action system, exposing companies in a broad range of industries to new risks with potentially huge financial implications. The proposed new law…
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…
After the first Monday in October, there were few petitions involving antitrust and trade regulation disputes pending on the U.S. Supreme Court’s docket. However, within just one month, the Court has been asked to review three high-profile antitrust decisions. Word on whether the Court will take up any of the cases is unlikely before next year….
UPDATE: On June 15, the Court denied review in Hsiung v. U.S., Dkt. 14-1121, and Motorola Mobility LLC v. AU Optronics Corp., Dkt. 14-1122. Apparently, Dow Chemical Co. v. Industrial Polymers, Inc., Dkt. 14-1091, remains pending. The parties filed a joint motion to hold the petition in abeyance before release of the Supreme Court Order List, and…
Although the parties reached a $7.25 billion class action settlement of the antitrust suit brought by merchants against Visa and MasterCard over swipe fees, the case is far from over. The protracted legal battle centers on allegations by merchants that Visa and MasterCard engaged in a price-fixing conspiracy to set interchange fees and then imposed…
Reverse payments settlements between patent holders and would-be generic competitors in the pharmaceutical industry should be reviewed under a “quick look” rule of reason analysis based on the economic realities of the reverse payment settlement, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia ruled today. The appellate court decided that wholesalers and retailers who purchased a…
Some U.S. Supreme Court watchers may have been disappointed that the Court on the last day of the October 2011 term–according to the Court’s calendar–did not decide the fate of President Obama’s health care overhaul legislation. That decision is most likely to come within the next three days, before the Court wraps up for the…
The authors are, respectively, partner and associate, at the firm of Labaton Sucharow LLP, New York City. Mr. Himes, who also co-chairs the firm’s Antitrust Practice Group, is the former Antitrust Bureau Chief, Office of the Attorney General of New York. Firm attorneys are counsel for plaintiffs in the Potatoes case discussed in this paper….
Something striking occurred in the Seventh Circuit this year. In two different, massive antitrust class actions, in the space of about nine months, panels of that court applied the Twombly-Iqbal pleading formula to reach opposite conclusions, even though both cases involved very similar fact allegations and the same procedural posture. Both cases also involved the…
“[O]vercome with a rare and gargantuan sense of awe,” a federal district court judge in Sioux City, Iowa, has called a consolidated class action case arising from price fixing conspiracies in the concrete industry “a model for the nation.” The case was brought on behalf of purchasers of ready-mix concrete against ready-mix concrete producers and…
