Antitrust Law

Is Uber ride-sharing app a price-fixing scheme? Federal judge OKs conspiracy suit against CEO

A federal judge gave a green light on Thursday to a lawsuit alleging that the head of Uber Technologies Inc. is involved in a price-fixing conspiracy with drivers who use the company’s ride-sharing smartphone application to find paying passengers. Co-founder and chief executive officer Travis Kalanick had sought to dismiss…

Apr 1, 2016 11:05 AM CDT

SCOTUS antitrust ruling against dentists raises questions about lawyers’ regulatory structures

The organized bar is feeling pain from a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that a regulatory board for the dental profession in North Carolina doesn't have state-action immunity in a Federal Trade Commission antitrust action challenging the board's efforts to block nondentists from providing teeth-whitening services to consumers.

Apr 1, 2016 3:00 AM CDT

Second-highest bidder is OK’d to buy corporate owner of OC Register after DOJ files antitrust suit

Updated: A federal bankruptcy judge has approved the sale of the corporate owner of two California newspapers to the second-highest bidder in a bankruptcy auction after the U.S. Justice Department objected to Tribune Publishing’s plans to buy the company. U.S. District Judge Mark Wallace approved the sale of Freedom Communications…

Mar 21, 2016 1:45 PM CDT

Federal judge tells law firms their motion is a ‘monumental waste of resources’

A federal judge in San Francisco appears to be losing patience with lawyers in an antitrust lawsuit (PDF) claiming credit card companies were slow to certify chip readers that are needed to avoid liability for credit card fraud. U.S. District Judge William Alsup declared the plaintiffs’ request for an injunction…

Mar 21, 2016 7:46 AM CDT

Citing changed ‘risk assessment’ after Scalia’s death, Dow settles class action for $835M

Dow Chemical has decided to settle a class-action suit alleging price fixing in polyurethane sales rather than risk Supreme Court action that could let stand or affirm a $1.06 billion judgment. Dow agreed to settle for $835 million, report the National Law Journal (sub. req.), the Wall Street Journal (sub.…

Feb 29, 2016 7:41 AM CST

New York AG says ticket sales for concerts, sporting events is a ‘fixed game’ won by ‘ticket bots’

New York’s attorney general says online ticket sales to big concerts or sporting events is “a fixed game” in which “ticket bots” scarf them up by thousands for resale at inflated prices, the Associated Press reports. “Ticketing, to put it bluntly, is a fixed game,” says the report released Thursday…

Jan 29, 2016 11:30 AM CST

Washington State Bar suspends some ethics opinions because of antitrust concerns

The Washington State Bar Association has directed its ethics committee to stop issuing ethics opinions that could be interpreted as having a restraint on trade in the legal services market. Debra Carnes, the bar’s chief communications officer, says the move is temporary, according to the ABA BNA Lawyers’ Manual on…

Dec 21, 2015 6:15 AM CST

Craft brew fans sue to block planned merger of world’s biggest beer-makers

Nearly two dozen beer drinkers in Oregon, California and Washington state have banded together in a lawsuit seeking to block the planned merger of the two biggest beer-makers in the world on antitrust grounds. Allowing Anheuser-Busch InBev NV/SA and SABMiller PLC to form one company manufacturing nearly one-third of the…

Dec 3, 2015 2:30 PM CST

ABA urges SCOTUS to review decision that ‘opens the floodgates’ to disclosure of work product

The ABA is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to review a decision favoring the Federal Trade Commission in its battle to obtain attorney documents regarding a drug company’s settlement agreement with a generic manufacturer. The ABA brief (PDF) says the Supreme Court should review the decision (PDF) to protect against…

Dec 3, 2015 8:27 AM CST

Feds secretly bugged courthouse grounds to eavesdrop on private conversations, motion says

Wiring a federal agent or informant would have been legal. But the feds crossed the line by secretly installing microphones in at least three locations outside a California courthouse in 2009 and 2010 and eavesdropping on private conversations, says a motion. It was filed by defendants in a criminal case…

Nov 17, 2015 10:25 AM CST

Antitrust law applies to NCAA, but payments to college athletes may be banned, 9th Circuit rules

A federal appeals court has reversed an injunction that allowed schools to pay college athletes up to $5,000 per year in deferred compensation, saying the lower court decision was based on “threadbare evidence.” The decision (PDF) on Wednesday by the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reverses an…

Sep 30, 2015 11:13 AM CDT

Suit claims Los Angeles restaurants illegally agreed to add surcharge to customer bills

A lawsuit filed Tuesday claims more than a dozen Los Angeles-area restaurants agreed to add a 3 percent surcharge for employee health-care coverage in a price-fixing conspiracy that violates California law. The suit, which seeks class action status, was filed on behalf of plaintiff Margaret Imhoff in Los Angeles County…

Sep 4, 2015 5:45 AM CDT

Judge OKs $415M settlement in Silicon Valley salary-cap conspiracy case, but cuts legal fees in half

After five years of litigation, a federal judge has OK’d a $415 million settlement in a case over an alleged civil conspiracy by leaders of top Silicon Valley companies to put a lid on tech worker salaries. However, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh halved the $81 million in attorney fees…

Sep 3, 2015 2:40 PM CDT

After NLRB loss, attorney for would-be Northwestern football union points to lawsuit against NCAA

Although the National Labor Relations Board refused this week to oversee a union-organizing effort by Northwestern University football players, those on the losing side of the case haven’t lost hope of a bigger payday. Among other possible options, they are looking to an ongoing federal antitrust case against the National…

Aug 19, 2015 4:10 PM CDT

Rejected $79M AmEx settlement was ‘fatally tainted’ by lawyer’s conduct, judge rules

Last year, a federal judge gave preliminary approval to a proposed $79 million settlement in an antitrust class action between American Express Co. and merchants over credit-card transaction fees. But that was before U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis found out about emails between one of the lead lawyers for the…

Aug 4, 2015 12:30 PM CDT