Antitrust Group

UK Planning To Strengthen Competition Cops

The government of the United Kingdom is seeking comments on proposals designed to strengthen and streamline the UK’s competition regime. The proposed reforms of British antitrust enforcement are contained in draft legislation that the UK has released for public comment. The proposed measures are among the revisions being contemplated as part of an overhaul of both civil and criminal antitrust enforcement in...

Court Finds Beer Drinkers’ Antitrust Claims Against Anheuser-Busch InBev Are Flat

Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev), the world’s largest brewery, has convinced a federal judge in California to dismiss an antitrust complaint challenging its acquisition of Grupo Modelo, the largest brewer in Mexico. The plaintiffs in Steven Edstrom et al. v. Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV are a group of nine beer consumers in the United States who are asking the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of...

Ninth Circuit Rules IPod Consumer Class Action Is Out Of Tune And Out Of Court

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has affirmed the dismissal of a proposed class action alleging Apple Inc. violated antitrust laws in promoting the iPod and its iTunes Music Store. The three-judge panel ruled that the monopolization claims of the plaintiff, consumer Stacie Somers, failed as a matter of law for several reasons. The court found that Somers could not seek review of the district...

Class Certification Fights Derail Rail Freight Antitrust Case As Sears And Whirlpool Cases Move To Next Cycle

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has rejected a district court’s certification of an antitrust class action in In re Rail Freight Fuel Surcharge Antitrust Litigation, becoming the third U.S. Court of Appeals in recent months to grapple with whether, and to what extent, class action plaintiffs must show that damages can be measured on a classwide basis under the Supreme Court’s March 2013 decision in...

Chicago Prom Dress Boutique Will Have To Answer Claims Of Cut-Throat Tactics

Prom dress retailer Peaches Boutique will have to litigate charges that it engaged in cut-throat dress-selling tactics in the Chicago area now that a federal judge has decided that competitor Hannah’s Boutique has adequately pleaded antitrust claims in Hannah's Boutique Inc. v. Barbara Ann Surdej et al. Judge Amy J. St. Eve of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois denied Peaches' motion to...

U.K. Competition Appeals Court Finds Reform Plan Less Than Appealing

The United Kingdom’s Competition Appeal Tribunal is expressing serious doubts that the British government’s plan to streamline competition appeals will actually reform the process for the better. The Tribunal expressed its doubts and criticisms in a detailed response to the government’s plan for “Streamlining Regulatory and Competition Appeals,” which was published by the Department of Business Innovation...