In ZF Meritor LLC et al. v. Eaton Corp., the Delaware District Court Judge Sue L. Robinson denied Eaton’s motion for summary judgment, holding that plaintiffs may proceed with their antitrust claims accusing Eaton of monopolizing the market for heavy-duty transmissions in North America. The Court held that given the defendants’ “undisputed monopoly power in […]
Category Archives: Section 2 Standards
TV Stations Sues Neilsen for Excluding Competition in Ratings Services
May 22, 2009 – 11:46 am
In Sunbeam Television Corp. v. Neilsen Media Research Inc., the plaintiff, a Florida television station operator, sued Neilsen Media Research Inc., alleging that Nielsen violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act, and the Florida equivalent, by abusing its monopoly in the television ratings industry. Specifically, Sunbeam alleged that Nielsen discouraged potential competitors from entering the television ratings market, and then sharply increased its prices […]
Indirect Purchasers Seek to Join I-Pod Antitrust Litigation
May 21, 2009 – 1:48 pm
Update: May 2009: A Northern District of California Judge dismissed the claim that Apple improperly tied I-pods to its itunes music software. The court found that the company did not link the sale of the two products and that either could be used without the other. A class of plaintiffs that have purchased I-Pods from […]
Hypodermic Product Direct Purchaser Monpolization Case Settles
May 2, 2009 – 2:49 pm
In Louisiana Wholesale Drug Co. Inc. v. Becton Dickinson & Co. Inc., Beckton Dickinson & Co. Inc. has reached a $45 million settlement with direct purchasers in five antitrust suits accusing the medical device maker of monopolizing the market for hypodermic products by providing incentives and paying kickbacks to GPOs in return for selling BD products […]
EC Issues Statement of Objections re: Visa Multilateral Interchange Fees
April 7, 2009 – 2:06 pm
In the continuing saga of the EC’s battle over interchange fees with Visa and MasterCard, the Commission has followed up its tentative settlement with MasterCard with a new Statement of Objections to Visa stating its preliminary view that Visa’s unilateral setting of multilateral interchange fees 1) restrict competition between banks to gain merchant acceptance business and 2) fail to advance technical and […]
FCC Denies AT&T Unfair Competition Claim
March 10, 2009 – 5:24 pm
The FCC has denied AT&T’s claim that Cox Broadcasting’s refusal to license Padres baseball games to AT&T in San Diego constitutes unfair competition. Cox has an exclusive deal the over-the-air station, Channel 4 San Diego, which has exclusive rights to the Padres games. Cox has agreed to sub-license Time-Warner cable, which like Cox serves large […]
Attempt to Monopolize Resin Industry Case Goes Forward
February 3, 2009 – 11:54 am
Judge Joan Lefko, Northern District of Illinois, dismissed a tying claim, but allow other antitrust allegations made by DSM Desotech Inc. against 3D Sytems Corp. to go forward in a private antitrust action involving the stereolithography machine industry. The machines use lasers to cut objects from resin. DSM argues that 3DS has tried to exclude […]
Natural Gas Predatory Pricing Case Goes Forward
January 23, 2009 – 4:21 pm
Orwell Natural Gas’s complaint alleging that Dominion Resources Services has engaged in predatory pricing and exlusionary contracting practices has survied a motion to dismiss. The case is moving forward before Judge Donald Nugent in the Northern District of Ohio.
FTC Challenges Drug Acquisitions
January 4, 2009 – 3:27 pm
The FTC, along with the state of Minnesota, has sued Ovation Pharmaceuticals, arguing that the drug company acted anticompetitively in aquiring over the course of several months in 2005 and 2006 the only two drugs available in the US to treat a certain congenital heart defects. It acquired Indocin in August 2005, while a potentially competitive drug, […]
Ninth Circuit Dismisses Refusal to Deal Claim
January 4, 2009 – 1:25 pm
The Ninth Circuit recently dismissed a Section 2 claim against the social networking site Myspace. The plaintiff, LiveUniverse Inc., alleged that Myspace violated Section 2 by disabling links to other social networking sites. Although the court agreed that Myspace had market power, its conduct was not deemed to be exclusionary. LiveUniverse argued the Myspace’s practice […]