In Pecover et al. v. Electronic Arts Inc., Northern District of California Judge Vaughn Walker refused to throw out Sherman Act and California’s Cartwright Act claims in a proposed consumer class action alleging that Electronic Arts Inc.’s exclusive licenses with various football leagues have “killed off” competition for its Madden series of football games, which […]
Category Archives: Section 2 Standards
D.C. Circuit Remands Airline Antitrust Claims to DOT
August 20, 2009 – 2:34 pm
In Alaska Airlines Inc. et al. v. U.S. Department of Transportation, U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Columbia has ordered the U.S. Department of Transportation to reconsider antitrust allegations by Southwest Airlines Co., US Airways Group Inc. and other airlines that Los Angeles International Airport and the city of Los Angeles unfairly discriminated in hiking […]
Small Local Telephone Providers Accuse AT&T of Predatory Pricing
August 18, 2009 – 5:43 pm
In a Northern District of Texas case, local telephone providers are accusing AT&T of seeking to drive them out of business by refusing to permit new customers of the competitors to receive the $50 rebate that AT&T provides to its own new customers. In the past, AT&T had made this rebate available to all new […]
Drug Wholesalers Sue Merck for Delaying Generic Singulair
August 18, 2009 – 5:33 pm
Drug wholesalers have sued Merck in the District of New Jersey alleging that it violated the antitrust laws in two ways. First, the complaint alleges that Merck obtained a patent for its Singulair asthma and allergy drug through fraud on the patent office, and in particular for failing to disclose its own prior art. Second, Merck filed […]
Ninth Circuit Rejects Monopoly Leveraging Claim
July 16, 2009 – 7:05 am
The Ninth Circuit has rejected a monopoly leveraging claim against Abbot Labs. In that claim, plaintiffs alleged that Abbot violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act by increasing the price of Norvir, an HIV booster drug on which it held a monopoly position, while leaving at competitive levels the price for Kaletra, a protease inhibitor […]
DuPont Files Antitrust Counter-claim Against Monsanto
July 7, 2009 – 8:47 am
In this District of Missouri litigation, DuPont has fired back in response to Monsanto’s patent infringement suit with a counter-claim alleging that Monsanto is seeking to monopolize the market for herbicide resistant corn and soybean. Monsanto claims that DuPont’s use of its Round-up Ready crops in conjunction with other anti-herbicidetechnology infringes Monsanto’s patent. DuPont denies the […]
EC’s Microsoft Investigation
June 15, 2009 – 12:10 pm
The EC has taken note of Microsoft‘s plan to offer a version of Windows 7 in the EU without Internet Explorer. The Commission said that it would soon determine whether Microsoft’s tying of the two from 1996 to date constituted an abusive of its dominant position. The U.S. Courts have previously determined that many aspects of Microsoft’s conduct relating to IE violated […]
9th Circuit Revives Web Domain Name Case
June 9, 2009 – 1:08 pm
A group calling itself the Coalition for ICANN Transparency, Inc. brought antitrust claims against Verisign, Inc., the sole entity licensed by ICANN to register .com and .net domain names. The district court dismissed the case, but the 9th Circuit reversed, holding that the complaint adequately stated antitrust claims. All parties agreed that as a practical […]
Ticketmaster Settles Antitrust Dispute
June 2, 2009 – 2:46 pm
In 2007, the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team and Ticketmater rival Flash Seats LLC filed an antitrust action against Ticketmaster. The complaint alleged that Ticketmaster used its substantial market power to unlawfully restrain competition by enforcing its exclusive contract with the Cavaliers to block the basketball team for using Flash Seats as a ticket reseller. Last September, Ticketmaster […]