Antitrust Group

San Jose Gets Beaned By Baseball Antitrust Exemption In Case Against Major League Baseball

The City of San Jose may have gotten beaned by a ruling that its federal and state antitrust claims against Major League Baseball (“MLB”) should be dismissed under baseball’s nearly century-old antitrust exemption, but it still gets to dust itself off and proceed to first base on its contract interference claims. San Jose is alleging in City of San Jose et al. v. Office of the Commissioner of Baseball et al....

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION PROPOSES TO REGULATE INTERCHANGE FEES

On 24 July 2013, the European Commission adopted a package of proposed legislative measures to improve the current payment services framework. Alongside a new Payment Services Directive (PSD), the package includes a proposal for a Regulation on interchange fees. Interchange fees are fees paid by a merchant’s bank (the acquiring bank) to the cardholder’s bank (the issuing bank) for card-based payment...

EUROPEAN COMMISSION INVESTIGATION CONCLUDES EU ANTITRUST INFRINGEMENT

A two-year European Commission investigation has preliminarily concluded that some of the world’s largest investment banks -in addition to two bodies that they control:  Markit and the International Swaps and Derivatives Associations (ISDA) -have infringed EU antitrust rules by colluding to prevent exchanges from entering the credit derivatives market between 2006 and 2009. As a result, rival firms were unable to...

LIBOR ICAP SETTLEMENT

At the end of September, London interdealer broker ICAP agreed to pay £55 million in settlement of allegations of wrongdoing to UK and US regulators.  The investigations alleged that ICAP traders had participated in Libor rate fixing.  ICAP is the fourth financial institution to enter into a financial settlement with regulators in the UK and the US.  Previous global Libor settlement figures agreed by Barclays, UBS...

Feds Streamline Confidentiality Waiver For International Antitrust Investigations

The U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division and the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) have announced that they are issuing a new joint model waiver of confidentiality designed to facilitate international antitrust investigations. The Antitrust Division and the FTC often ask individuals and companies involved in civil investigations to permit the agencies to share confidential information provided in the...

J.P. Morgan Convinces Second Circuit That Natural Gas Investors’ Aiding And Abetting Claims Are Hot Air

The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has affirmed the dismissal of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and two of its subsidiaries, J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, Inc. and J.P. Morgan Futures, Inc., from In re: Amaranth Natural Gas Commodities Litigation, a suit brought by natural gas futures contracts purchasers that alleged J.P. Morgan aided and abetted the massive price manipulation scheme that led to the 2006...

Tenth Circuit Rules Microsoft Had No Duty To Deal With Novell’s WordPerfect

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit has rejected Novell, Inc.’s bid to resurrect its antitrust claims accusing Microsoft Corporation of maintaining its monopoly in the operating systems market by withdrawing its support for WordPerfect and other Novell applications. The Court affirmed the decision of the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah in Novell v. Microsoft Corp. granting Microsoft...

Software Engineers Seek Court Approval Of $20 Million Antitrust Settlement With High-Tech Giants

Plaintiffs seeking to represent a class of software engineers employed by Silicon Valley giants are asking the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to certify a settlement class and to approve a $20 million settlement of antitrust claims reached with Intuit Inc., The Walt Disney Co.'s Pixar Animation Studios Inc., and Lucasfilm Ltd. If the settlement in In re: High-Tech Employee Antitrust...

Wireless Companies Succeed In Routing Text Message Plaintiffs Into Arbitration

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has decided that the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent upholding of a contractual waiver of class arbitration prevents three messaging companies from escaping arbitration of their antitrust claims against a large group of wireless companies in the putative class action of In re: A2P SMS Antitrust Litigation. Plaintiffs Club Texting Inc., TextPower Inc. and...