The Second Circuit has reaffirmed its decision that a merchant class action challenging the fees that American Express charges merchants to accept its cards can move forward. The merchants argued that AmEx unlawfully tied the acceptance of its charge cards to acceptance of its credit cards. Although the merchants are willing to pay a premium […]
Category Archives: Section 2 Standards
DOJ to Investigate Google Book Deal
April 1, 2011 – 3:08 pm
Update March 2011: Southern District of NY Judge Denny Chin rejected a class action settlement between plaintiff publishers and Google that would have permitted Google to publish orphan works on an opt out basis. The Department of Justice and potential competitors such as Microsoft and Amazon argued that the settlement would allow Google to monopolize […]
EU Requests Patent Settlement Information Between Pharmaceutical Companies and Generic Drug Manufacturers
January 31, 2011 – 1:12 pm
Antitrust regulators requested drug patent settlement information for 2010 from drug manufacturers to determine if the agreements have delayed generic drug entry into the market. The request for information is the second monitoring session activated by the EC. The first monitoring exercise determined that “pay for delay” settlement agreements decreased significantly once the EC began […]
Summary Judgment Granted for Nielson Extinguishing Antitrust Claims
January 31, 2011 – 1:05 pm
Southern District of Florida Judge Paul Huck granted partial summary judgment for Nielson on an antitrust claim, deferred ruling on breach of contract and Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act claims. The plaintiff, Sunbeam Television Corp., alleged that Nielson used faulty viewership data to plummet ratings for Sunbeam’s stations. Sunbeam also alleged that Nielson […]
EC Opens Investigation of Google
January 26, 2011 – 5:12 pm
The European Commission has launched a formal investigation into Google after several search service providers complained that the company had abused its dominant position by allegedly lowering the ranking of unpaid search results of competing services. The Commission said that it would also look into allegations that Google has implemented a series of policies to […]
Novir Lawsuits Sent to Jury
January 26, 2011 – 5:01 pm
Northern District of California’s Judge Claudia Wilken denied plaintiff’s motions for summary judgment sending several lawsuits against Abbott Laboratories to the jury. Plaintiffs allege that Abbott raised the price of its HIV drug Norvir in order to protect a separate drug, Kaletra, from competition. Judge Wilken said that the case could go forward on theories […]
Class Certified in iPhone Exclusive Dealing & Monopolization Case
January 26, 2011 – 2:46 pm
Update January 2010: Northern District of California Judge James Ware dismissed with leave to amend a complaint filed by an indirect purchaser alleging that Apple charged anticompetitive fees for music that could play on non-Apple devices and had issued updates that reduced the value of i-pods because they limited the ability of the Apple device […]
Judge’s Reversal Ends Antitrust Portion of Gaming Suit
January 17, 2011 – 10:37 am
District of Nevada Judge Robert C. Jones reversed an earlier ruling between Bally Technologies and International Gaming Technology (IGT). This new ruling effectively ends the antitrust portion of the lawsuit. The counter-claimant, Bally, alleged that the suit was part of an effort to monopolize the gaming market for certain types of machines. Bally argued that […]
EC Investigates Whether Google Unfairly Promoted Its Own Services Over Its Competitors’ Services
January 17, 2011 – 12:19 am
The EU opened formal proceedings against Google to determine if it had utilized market power to push down the rank of other search and price comparison sites. The investigation was opened after the Commission received several complaints from other search providers alleging that Google was unfairly favoring its own search results. The EC will also […]