Unfair Competition & Class Actions

Complaint also blames the six leading publishers with hampering science for profit. Six major publishers of scientific journals – Elsevier, Wolters Kluwer, John Wiley &…

09/26/24

  Case pits newcomer against colossus said to control as much as 80-90% of the market. Particle Health Inc., a young healthcare data platform provider,…

09/26/24

FTC advocates for relief that has lasting impact that stops illegal conduct, prevents recurrence, and restores competition. The Federal Trade Commission has offered U.S. District…

08/23/24

Rubin sees tech development racing ahead of legal actions. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia’s Aug. 5 decision holding Google liable for…

08/21/24

The Federal Trade Commission sent ConocoPhillips a second request for information on July 11 regarding its proposed acquisition of Marathon Oil, according to Reuters. ConocoPhillips…

07/22/24

The European Commission fined New York-based International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. and its French counterpart (“IFF”) yesterday the equivalent of $17 million for obstructing an…

06/25/24

The European Commission conducted surprise on-site inspections of a “consultancy firm” in two EU Member States, suspecting the firm of violating antitrust rules under Article…

06/25/24

Agencies seek to split the company, saying exclusionary conduct harms consumers, artists, and venue owners. The Antitrust Division of the Justice Department and 30 state…

05/24/24

Government attorneys say exclusionary conduct harms consumers, artists, and venue owners, and stifles innovation.   The Antitrust Division of the Justice Department and 30 state…

05/23/24

The deal is about data, advertising, and Amazon. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has kicked off an antitrust inquiry into Walmart Inc.’s proposed acquisition of…

05/07/24

Government says Sheffield colluded with competitors and cartels to keep prices and profits high. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) approved Exxon’s $64.5 billion purchase of…

05/03/24

  Between 36 and 60 million employees could be relieved of restrictions. On April 23, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a final rule…

04/29/24

  EC Concerned Company Blocked Competing Product   The European Commission has opened a formal antitrust investigation to assess whether animal health company Zoetis may…

04/24/24

  Bag Maker Says Commission Just Doesn’t Get the Industry The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed an administrative complaint to block Tapestry, Inc.’s acquisition of…

04/24/24

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Supreme Court Declines to Review Class Certification of ATM Operator Class in Antitrust Case Against Mastercard and Visa The Supreme Court declined…

04/16/24

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on Friday (April 5, 2024) lifted restrictions imposed by a lower court that had prevented…

04/08/24

Apple uses anticompetitive tactics to lock in consumers and developers, government says. Apple will even sacrifice quality to thwart innovation and competition, according to the…

03/26/24

  The Federal Trade Commission is requesting public comment on an application from XCL Resources Holdings, LLC, a subsidiary of private equity firm EnCap Investment…

03/14/24

The European Commission has fined Apple more than €1.8 billion ($2 billion) for allegedly abusing its dominant position in the market for the distribution of…

03/04/24

The playing field continues to shift in favor of college athletes who wish to freely strike licensing deals for their names, images, and likenesses, or…

02/28/24

High court lets Ninth Circuit opinion stand, but the conflict isn’t over. What just happened? Last week the Supreme Court denied Apple Inc.’s petition to…

01/22/24

“Traditional antitrust economics face significant challenges grappling with the new economy industrial environment, and the Amazon case is likely to be a crucial test for…

01/11/24

Adobe Inc. and Figma Inc. have agreed to terminate their merger rather than combat European, British, and U.S. competition law agencies which shared the opinion…

01/11/24

Case addresses antitrust implications when competitors use algorithms to make pricing decisions. A ruling by U.S. Judge Waverly Crenshaw in Tennessee has kept alive a…

01/10/24

Does Apple use its hardware/software control to hamper switching and competing? The Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice is in the “late stages” of…

01/10/24

  Company also agrees to change anticompetitive conduct pertaining to exclusivity, payments, pricing, and more. Google will pay $700 million and change several of its…

12/19/23

Antitrust Division Annuls Koch’s Contract Exit Penalties Citing the unreasonable burden placed on poultry farmers, the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division sued Koch Foods Inc. last…

12/11/23

Growing pressure on sales practices includes DOJ probe. Case in Missouri is similar to another in Illinois set for trial next year. Damages have potential…

11/07/23

  Case raises questions about competitors using algorithms to set prices. Interested in the matter’s Sherman Act implications, the Department of Justice Antitrust Division is…

11/01/23

Investigation cites pre-WWII amendment to the FTC Act.   Marks at least second such pricing investigation this year. Both involve leading retailers and beverage companies.…

10/31/23

  MLB’s century-old antitrust immunity under assault from several directions.   Minor leagues teamed up after MLB severed affiliations, but Second Circuit ruled against them.…

10/31/23

  EC concerned Cardin and manufacturer have been colluding for years.   EC wants to know if companies engaged in “absolute territorial protection.” Companies allegedly…

10/31/23

Rubin talks about class action to eliminate an unfairness in the broader economy. Las Vegas, NV (October 25, 2023) — Jonathan Rubin, Partner and co-founder…

10/26/23

DOJ: Enabling competitive information swapping harms competition in this concentrated market.  Citing the harm it causes consumers and grocery stores, the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division…

10/05/23

Signaling greater antitrust scrutiny in Europe, Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Apple, ByteDance (TikTok), Meta (Facebook), and Microsoft have earned designations as “gatekeepers” by the European Commission…

09/19/23

Anywhere Real Estate has settled out of antitrust class action litigation brought by home sellers claiming the National Association of Realtors, Anywhere, and other major…

09/13/23

More corporate directors have resigned in light of the Department of Justice Antitrust Division’s initiative to stop competitors from sharing corporate leadership. Two directors on…

09/13/23

Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. and Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Inc., USA have agreed to the terms demanded by the Department of Justice to resolve price-fixing charges against…

09/13/23

Settlement said to resolve anticompetitive concerns over critical drugs. The Federal Trade Commission and attorneys general from six states – California, Illinois, Minnesota, New York,…

09/08/23

Leading Antitrust Practitioners to Exchange Insights MoginRubin LLP Partner Jonathan Rubin is participating in a live Strafford webinar, titled “Class Certification: Guidance from Olean v.…

09/07/23

Company allegedly threatened to cut off distributors who sold rival products. A 2019 antitrust lawsuit against Berkshire Hathaway’s Johns Manville (JM) brought by rival calcium…

08/29/23

  Shareholders say Bezos and Execs Caused Them “Massive” Losses Two Amazon Inc. investors have filed a shareholder derivative lawsuit against Jeff Bezos and other senior…

08/29/23

Adding to its woes, investors claim losses because Live Nation did not disclose anticompetitive conduct. Live Nation and its subsidiary, Ticketmaster (“Live Nation”) have successfully…

08/29/23

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE D.C. Appeals Court Affirms ATM Operators’ Class Certification in Antitrust Case Against Visa and Mastercard   Decision moves forward class actions brought…

07/26/23

European Commission fines companies for merging without approval.   Illumina, GRAIL consummate merger immediately after EC investigation began. Commission to decide whether the companies must…

07/13/23

  Judge deals blow to FTC.   U.S. Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley has revived Microsoft’s $68.7 billion Activision Blizzard acquisition. The FTC wanted to put…

07/11/23

  But examination of the deal continues in the US and UK.   The European Union competition regulators today conditionally approved Broadcom‘s purchase of cloud…

07/11/23

Would the combined company use improper tactics to foreclose competition? Review of the $43 billion biopharmaceutical merger of drug giant Pfizer Inc. and biopharmaceutical company…

06/29/23

Commission pauses major biopharma transaction involving drugs priced in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. As part of the Federal Trade Commission’s promised campaign to…

06/29/23

In Antitrust Law, MLB is in a League of Its Own In the 1992 movie “A League of Their Own,” Jimmy Dugan was the cranky…

06/28/23

The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee has voted to advance a bill that would give smaller news organizations limited antitrust immunity to negotiate content licensing deals…

06/21/23

MoginRubin celebrates Senior Counsel Joy Sidhwa and her recent recognition by San Diego Business Journal as a Woman of influence in Law! Congratulations on your…

06/08/23

  MoginRubin has been ranked by The Legal 500 United States 2023 in the category of Antitrust and Civil Litigation/Class Action: Plaintiff.  Along with the…

06/08/23

The proposed “tie up” of the PGA Tour Inc. and LIV Golf Inc.’s operations may face scrutiny by the Department of Justice. The two organizations…

06/08/23

According to multiple news reports, the Department of Justice has revived its antitrust investigation against Alphabet Inc. and Google LLC over their Google Maps service…

03/30/23

Paris-based Sanofi S.A. announced a definitive agreement to pay $2.9 billion for diabetes drug manufacturer Provention Bio, Inc., a U.S.-based, biopharmaceutical company focused on intercepting…

03/28/23

U.S. Judge Cynthia M. Rufe of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania has approved a settlement in an antitrust class action brought by direct pharmaceutical purchasers…

03/28/23

Judge: Case “vividly points to the need for class treatment.” Football fans have secured class certification of their lawsuit claiming that they were charged inflated…

02/17/23

Live Nation-Ticketmaster Dominance: “This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things” Photo by Hanny Naibaho on Unsplash [Editor’s Note: Quoted phrases are titles of Taylor…

01/09/23

Berlin-based professor of law and economics, Armin Steinbach, filed a lawsuit against OPEC in early November, accusing the organization of being an illegal cartel that…

12/01/22

If you are an eyewear customer there is a very good chance you’re also at least an indirect customer of this company. Eyewear giant EssilorLuxottica…

12/01/22

Pharmaceutical company Teva is under investigation by the European Commission over their competition practices, which the commission says interferes with medication research. Teva held a…

12/01/22

In November of 2022, Cloud Infrastructure Service Providers in Europe (CISPE) announced it was filing a formal complaint against Microsoft with the European Commission’s Directorate-General…

12/01/22

At the start of October, an Italian administrative court ruled that Apple and Amazon no longer have to pay a $225 million fine levied by…

12/01/22

The European Commission is putting the Microsoft and Activision Blizzard merger on hold as they investigate whether the deal will reduce competition among PC gaming…

12/01/22

While the European Commission announced back in March that they would investigate Facebook, sources have leaked that it is ready to announce formal charges, according…

12/01/22

French competition authority, Autorité de la Concurrence, fined Apple a record $1.2 billion after their investigation found that Apple and its wholesale partners, Ingram Micro…

12/01/22

  Pfizer Inc. has acquired Global Blood Therapeutics, Inc. (GBT), a biopharmaceutical company whose leading product inhibits harmful medical conditions that lead to the relatively…

10/20/22

iRobot Corp. shareholders approved Amazon.com, Inc.’s $1.7 billion purchase of the Roomba maker on Oct. 17, while a pre-trial conference in a suit brought by…

10/20/22

Syngenta and Corteva used “loyalty programs” to cut off competition and inflate prices paid by farmers and consumers, suit says. The Federal Trade Commission and…

10/14/22

Would the deal usher in a new era of collaborative creativity or just a more powerful monopoly? Tech industry observers disagree on the potential impact…

10/03/22

A brief setback for Biden’s war on anticompetitive deals? The number of mergers globally in 2021, according to PwC, was the biggest on record with…

10/03/22

Trump appointees say things were better during his term. Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina M. Khan testified this week that despite being strapped for resources…

09/21/22

Google awaits service in three countries over digital ad conduct. One of the first victims of the rapid tectonic shift in how the world consumes…

09/15/22

Amazon dodges price competition with other e-commerce sites by forcing merchants into agreements that penalize them if their prices beat Amazon’s. That’s the crux of…

09/15/22

FTC Accuses Meta of Trying to Further Dominate Virtual Reality Ecosystem via Acquisition. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed suit against Meta Platforms, Inc. (fka…

09/01/22

Eleventh Circuit disagrees that the complaint was an inadequate “shotgun pleading” against Google, YouTube and Alphabet. Handing Google LLC a reversal of fortune, the Eleventh…

09/01/22

  Plaintiffs say Oracle collects and sells private data without citizens’ consent. A class action complaint filed in federal court in San Francisco claims Oracle…

08/29/22

The fate of the $2.2 billion Penguin Random House (PRH) / Simon & Schuster (S&S) merger remains with U.S. District Judge Florence Pan who presided…

08/26/22

U.S. District Judge R. David Proctor of Alabama has approved the settlement of antitrust litigation brought against Blue Cross Blue Shield Association by large employers…

08/10/22

The Federal Trade Commission’s lawsuit seeks an injunction against Meta Platforms Inc.’s acquisition of Within Limited. Their effort is to challenge Meta’s actions to dominate…

07/28/22

Apple Operating an Illegal Monopoloy in Tap-and-Pay Market, Suit Says The convenience of the tap-and-pay mobile wallet model is a feature consumers increasingly enjoy for…

07/21/22

Independent Uber and Lyft drivers filed a class action against the rideshare pioneers last month alleging they are violating California antitrust and consumer protection law.…

07/08/22

Dan Mogin of MoginRubin LLP and Travis Miller, General Counsel at Assent Compliance Inc., appeared on the Emerging Litigation Podcast to discuss a range of…

07/05/22

At the end of April 2022, announcing President Joseph Biden’s latest round of federal judicial nominations, the White House hailed the nominees not only as…

06/03/22

As tuna customers continue the fight against major tuna companies, Partner Jonathan Rubin weighs in on the potential effects the case may have on future…

06/01/22

MoginRubin LLP is proud to announce that it continues to be one of the top antitrust law firms in the country, and is among the…

05/30/22

The European Commission has adopted new Vertical Block Exemption Regulations (‘VBER’) accompanied by new Vertical Guidelines, which will allow, subject to conditions, agreements between companies…

05/27/22

Court Says Licensing Agreement Does Not Bar App Maker Litigation A federal judge has rejected Apple Inc.’s interpretation of its app licensing agreement in the…

05/23/22

A federal court jury in Denver returned not guilty verdicts in the government’s criminal case against DaVita Inc. and its former CEO, in which the…

05/18/22

Company served with a new lawsuit amid fresh calls to unwind. When concert promoting giant Live Nation Entertainment, Inc., and ticketing giant Ticketmaster Entertainment, Inc.,…

04/08/22

Amazon.com Inc. started the month of March with two suits on opposite coasts challenging the rules it imposes on the platform’s merchants which prohibit them…

03/25/22

Recommitted to fighting anticompetitive consolidation, the government could still challenge the deal. The Federal Trade Commission’s silence last week on Amazon’s acquisition of MGM –…

03/23/22

The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and the European Commission have launched investigations into whether Alphabet/Google and Meta/Facebook illegally conspired to hold their dominant…

03/17/22

The House Judiciary Committee has informed Attorney General Merrick Garland of “potentially criminal conduct” on the part of Amazon and its top executives. Detailed in…

03/17/22

DOJ Official’s Remarks Seen as ‘Signal’ Government Will Use Criminal Charges to Fight Illegal Monopolies Remarks made by the DOJ’s Richard Powers at a March…

03/17/22

Finding “no competition concerns,” antitrust regulators at the European Commission yesterday (March 15) approved Amazon’s $8.5 billion acquisition of MGM and its collection of some…

03/16/22

Data continues to play key role in fight against anticompetitive mergers. Citing its potential to abuse the health insurance claims data it would amass, and…

03/10/22

The Federal Trade Commission and the Rhode Island Attorney General are using both administrative measures and litigation to stop the proposed merger of Lifespan Corp.…

02/18/22

You know things are bad when the Russian government says you’re abusing your power, acting surreptitiously, and restricting adjacent markets. But that’s the message Moscow…

02/16/22