In re: NCAA Student-Athlete Name & Likeness Licensing Litigation, Northern District of California Judge Claudia Wilken denied Electronic Arts Inc. motion to dismiss multidistrict antitrust litigation alleging that it conspired to deny compensation to former college athletes for use of their likenesses in video games. Plaintiffs claim that the NCAA wrongly prohibits college players from […]
Category Archives: Standard for Alleging Conspiracy
Class Challenges to South Carolina Real Estate Listing Services to Move Forward
May 30, 2012 – 4:22 pm
The Fourth Circuit has upheld the district court’s refusal to dismiss Robertson v. Sea Pines Real Estate. The case involves putative class actions alleging that South Carolina real estate listing services and brokerages conspired by enacting and enforcing rules that prohibited cost-saving innovative brokerage practices and thereby increased prices. In particular, the complaint attacks rules […]
Publishers Settle State E-book Litigation
May 30, 2012 – 4:19 pm
Southern District of New York Judge Denise L. Cote stayed multidistrict litigation against HarperCollins Publishers LLC and Hachette Book Group Inc. after the two publishers agreed to settle with the 15 states and Puerto Rico that had filed antitrust claims similar to those filed by the United States Department of Justice, Antitrust Division, against Apple […]
Optical Disc Drive Price Fixing Class Action to Move Forward
May 1, 2012 – 4:52 pm
In In re: Optical Disk Drive Products Antitrust Litigation, Northern District of California District Judge Richard Seeborg rejected motions to dismiss the class claim that the defendants conspired to rig bidding and fix prices on optical disc drives. The court had dismissed the initial complaint alleging a broad conspiracy among companies selling products containing disc […]
Follow-on Private Litigation Accusing Hi-Tech Firms of Agreeing Not to Compete for Engineering Talent to Move Forward
May 1, 2012 – 4:45 pm
Northern District of California Judge Lucy Koh refused to dismiss In re: High-Tech Employee Antitrust Litigation, a case in which the plaintiffs allege that agreements among hi-tech companies to not steal each other’s engineers. In 2010, the Antitrust Division entered a consent decree with Apple, Pixar, Google, Intel, Adobe Systems, Intuit, and Lucasfilms concerning a […]
E-book Publishing Antitrust Case Filed
May 1, 2012 – 4:41 pm
The United States Department of Justice, Antitrust Division, and the European Commission have launched major antitrust initiatives against the e-book publishing industry and Apple. Both enforcers are attacking the publishers’ decisions to switch from a traditional resale model in which book sellers paid wholesale prices and set their own resale prices to an agency model […]
Court Allows Price-Fixing Conspiracy Claims Against LCD Panel Makers To Move Forward
April 30, 2012 – 12:54 pm
In Jaco Electronics Inc. v. AU Optronics Corp. et al., Northern District of California Judge Susan Illston denied a motion to dismiss, filed by NEC Corp., and other LCD panel makers, allowing Jaco Electronics Inc.’s, antitrust lawsuit to move forward. Jaco’s suit is part of multidistrict litigation over a massive LCD price-fixing conspiracy, alleging that […]
Sirius/XM Launches Antitrust Attack on Music Licensors
April 3, 2012 – 2:11 pm
Sirius/XM has filed suit in New York federal court against SoundExchange, Inc., a copyright collective that represents thousands of labels and artists. The plaintiff asks the court to dissolve SoundExchange or put in place a long-term oversight program. The suit comes amid negotiations over rates that the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) will set for a […]
Direct Purchaser Multidistrict Antitrust Litigation Over Milk Prices Dismissed
March 30, 2012 – 9:51 am
In Food Lion LLC et al. v. Dean Foods Co et al., Eastern District ofTennessee Judge J. Ronnie Greer, granted defendants’ Dean Foods Co., Dairy Farmers of America, Inc., and others’, motion for summary judgment, thereby dismissing a direct purchaser multidistrict antitrust litigation over milk prices. In their suit, the retail sellers of processed milk, […]
Per Se Antitrust Claim Dismissed In Nurses’ Wage-Fixing Suit
March 23, 2012 – 8:27 pm
In Cason-Merendo et al. v. Detroit Medical Center et al., Eastern District ofMichigan Judge Gerald E. Rosen, in a class action suit filed by nurses who claim they were underpaid by hundreds of millions of dollars, granted summary judgment on plaintiffs’ per se antitrust claim that the hospitals conspired to fix wages. In their suit, […]