A number of class action complaints have been filed throughout the country challenging a 2005 agreement between Walmart and Netflix in which the retailer agreed to abandon the on-line DVD rental business and transfer its customers to Netflix, and in turn, Netflix agreed not to sell movies on-line and to refer its customers to Walmart […]
Category Archives: US Federal Courts
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.
Court Dismisses Proposed Class Action Against Chinese Magnesite Exporters
January 12, 2009 – 4:48 pm
Judge Garret Brown, US District Court for the District of NJ, dismissed price fixing allegations on the ground that the complaint failed to adequately allege a conspiracy or the requisite direct effect on the US market under the Foreign Trade Antitrust Improvements Act. The court left open the possibility of an amendment.
Class Action Filed Against Grocery Wholesalers
January 6, 2009 – 4:39 pm
Seeking to represent a class of grocers, D&G Inc. has sued Supervalue, Inc. and C&S Wholesale Grocers alleging an agreement to divide customers and territories to the detriment of retail grocers in response to C&S’s plans to enter the Wisconsin market and compete with Supervalue. The case, D&G Inc. v. Supervalue, Inc. has been filed in the […]
Aluminum Conspiracy to Go to Trial
January 4, 2009 – 3:47 pm
In Champagne Metals v. Ken-Mac Metals, Judge Joe Heaton, US District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, has found that the plaintiffs have presented sufficient evidence of a conspiracy among aluminum suppliers and mills to justify use of the co-conspiratory hearsay exception. The case alleges that the nations largest aluminum distributors conspired to pressure […]
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 […]
Court Certifies Class in Heart Drug Patent Case
January 4, 2009 – 1:13 pm
Judge Joseph Greenaway, US District Court for the District of New Jersey, in In re: K-Dur Antitrust Litigation has certified a class of direct purchasers of the Schering-Plough drug K-Dur 20. The case alleges that Schering improperly delayed the introduction of a generic version of the drug by making settlement payments to competitors that had filed abbrevieated […]
Court Approves Settlement of DNA Patent Class Action
January 4, 2009 – 1:04 pm
Judge Henry Kennedy of the US District Court for the District of Columbia approved a $33 million settlement between Hoffmann-LaRoche and a class of plaintiffs that used DNA identification technology. The case alleged that LaRoche had obtained the relevant patent through fraud on the patent office.
US Supreme Court Denies Cert, Upholding Decision that Tennis Tournament Restructuring Was Not Anticompetitive
December 2, 2008 – 1:14 am
Update December 2010: The U.S. Supreme Court declined to grant a writ of certiorari. Update June 2010: The Third Circuit has affirmed the juries decision in favor of the defendant on the ground that the plaintiffs failed to prove a relevant market. In a Delaware U.S. District Court case, the jury found for the defendant […]