Update May 2011: The Ninth Circuit upheld the dismissal of a private challenge to the merger, holding that the plaintiff’s allegation of a pharmaceutical market was inadequate. Update October 2009: The FTC has signed off on the merger on the condition that Pfizer sell some of its animal health business. But a group of pharmacists […]
Category Archives: US Federal Courts
Limits on Access to Discount Listings in MLS Violate FTC Act
May 25, 2011 – 2:20 pm
The Sixth Circuit has upheld a Federal Trade Commission ruling that a Michigan MLS service acted anticompetitively in adopting a rule that discount real estate listings would not (1) be transmitted to other public sites that provided access to full commission listings; and (2) listed within the MLS’s default search function. The court upheld the FTC’s findings […]
Text Messaging Case to Move Forward
May 22, 2011 – 6:51 pm
The Seventh Circuit in an interlocutory appeal written by Judge Richard Posner upheld the district judges decision in a multi-district litigation to allow an antitrust claim to move forward. The claim alleges a conspiracy among the largest cell phone providers to restrain competition with respect to text messages. Although the complaint did not allege direct […]
Medical Equipment Rental Antitrust Claims Must be Arbitrated
May 12, 2011 – 2:08 pm
Eastern District of Texas Judge David Folsom has held that Freedom Medical Inc. must arbitrate its antitrust claim against medical device rental firm Premier Purchasing Partners. Freedom had used a Premier on-line system called Passport that requires users to agree to arbitrate any disputes. The plaintiff analogized the agreement to a mandatory click through agreement, […]
Ninth Circuit Refuses to Stay Medical Lab Merger
May 12, 2011 – 1:48 pm
The Ninth Circuit has upheld a district court decision refusing the FTC’s request that the court stay, pending FTC administrative proceedings, the merger of Laboratory Corp. of America and Westcliff Medical Laboratories. The FTC alleged that the merger would enable two labs to control 89% of the capitated billing market. The court agreed with a dissenting FTC commission […]
Heavy Duty Manual Transmission Verdict Upheld
May 12, 2011 – 1:35 pm
District of Delaware Judge Sue Robinson denied defendant Eaton Corp.’s motion for judgment seeking to overturn a jury verdict finding that Eaton violated Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act. The plaintiffs, transmission manufacturer competitors ZF and Meritor, argued that Eaton took anticompetitive actions to foreclose the plaintiffs from the manual transmission market. These […]
Iowa Cement Conspiracy Case Dismissed
May 12, 2011 – 10:37 am
Northern District of Iowa Judge Mark Bennett dismissed a case filed by contractors and other plaintiffs against Iowa cement companies alleging a broad agreement to fix prices. Plaintiffs supported the conspiracy allegations by pointing to plea agreements in criminal cases in which executives at the cement companies admitted price fixing. The court found, however, that […]