Antitrust Insights and Analysis

Supreme Court Slams NCAA’s “Procompetitive Rationale” in Unanimous Ruling

Last week, the Supreme Court unanimously affirmed a lower court decision striking down NCAA rules limiting student-athlete compensation in a decision that is now being scrutinized for its impact on both antitrust law and college sports. In NCAA v. Alston, plaintiffs challenged those restrictions as a horizontal agreement to limit earnings for their labor.  The Supreme Court agreed, holding that the antitrust laws...

The Criminal Antitrust Anti-Retaliation Act: A First Step in the Right Direction

Congress has become active in revitalizing antitrust enforcement in recent months, from repealing antitrust immunity for health and dental insurers to considering legislation to beef up antitrust enforcement. This renewed interest in antitrust enforcement led Congress on December 8, 2020, to pass the Criminal Antitrust Anti-Retaliation Act of 2019 (the “Act”), which is the first federal statute to afford...

Health and Dental Insurers Lose Long-Standing Antitrust Immunity with Passage of the Competitive Health Insurance Reform Act

This past year has been very eventful for antitrust. While most of the focus has been on Big Tech, such as the recent lawsuits against Facebook, other developments also deserve attention. One such development is the end of antitrust immunity for health and dental insurers under the recent amendment to the McCarran-Ferguson Act of 1945, 15 U.S.C. §§ 1011-1015. The McCarran-Ferguson Act, in part, provided an...

AT&T’s $1.95 Billion Sale of its Telecommunications Assets in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands May be Only the Tip of the Iceberg

Last month the U.S. Department of Justice entered into a consent judgment approving AT&T’s sale of its wireless and wireline operations in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands to Liberty Latin America Ltd. for $1.95 billion.  Coming on the heels of several other divestitures by AT&T in the past few months, this transaction—while sizable—may be dwarfed by additional anticipated sales by the media and...

New York Could Lead the Nation Into 21st Century Antitrust Enforcement

By Grant Petrosyan New York is on the verge of revamping state antitrust enforcement to tackle competition issues of the 21st Century. On September 14, 2020, the Consumer Protection Committee of the New York State Senate held a virtual antitrust hearing regarding Senate Bill S8700, which is known as the “Twenty-First Century Anti-Trust Act.”  The proposed legislation, which, New York State Senator Michael...

German High Court Slams Facebook’s Data Collection Practices As It Reinstates Order

In a landmark ruling, Germany’s highest civil court criticized Facebook for allegedly abusing its “dominant market position on the social network market” as it reinstated an order by the Federal Cartel Office (“FCO”) restraining Facebook’s data collection practices. The Federal Court of Justice reversed an appellate court’s preliminary suspension of the order restraining Facebook, pending full...

Constantine Cannon Names New Partner

Constantine Cannon LLP is pleased to announce that Daniel Vitelli has been named partner at the firm.  Click here to read more.

Universities May Incur Antitrust Liability Acting Jointly in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

The upheaval caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has forced virtually every company and institution engaged in commercial transactions to re-evaluate and drastically alter its business practices.  While they are wise to do so, they would also be wise to remember that their susceptibility to the commercial effects of the pandemic offers no immunity from antitrust enforcement where companies have entered into...

Antitrust Enforcers Confront Coronavirus by Easing Up on Competitors While Cracking Down on Price Gougers

The coronavirus pandemic is forcing antitrust enforcers around the globe to adjust their competition policies to protect their constituents from both the virus and the unscrupulous. In an antitrust variant of the Hippocratic Oath, antitrust enforcers are first easing up on competition law to ensure that enforcement does not hinder life-saving efforts at cooperation by competitors.  For example, last week in the...

FTC Challenge Pushes Schick Deal to Acquire Harry’s Off The Razor’s Edge

Edgewell Personal Care Co., the parent company of Schick, has abandoned its plans to purchase Harry’s Razors just days after the Federal Trade Commission filed a complaint to block the merger earlier this month. In May 2019, Edgewell entered into an agreement to purchase Harry’s Inc., a start-up shaving company, for approximately $1.37 billion in stock and cash. The two companies compete in the “wet shave”...