Antitrust Group

California Judge Sweetens Antitrust Action For Sara Lee

The prices for products freshly baked by Sara Lee can be negotiated without violating California’s Cartwright Act a state court judge has ruled, throwing out antitrust class action claims against the food company. Distributors that buy the baked goods and sell them to stores throughout California filed Kaewsawang v. Sara Lee Corp. in 2006.  The Fourth Amended Complaint alleged that Sara Lee fixed prices and...

Auto Dealers Allege Carfax Is A Competitive Lemon In Antitrust Suit

More than 120 auto dealers in 17 states are alleging in a new $50 million antitrust suit that they paid higher prices for less reliable vehicle history reports thanks to Carfax’s exclusive dealing arrangements with major players in the auto industry. Carfax has monopolized the vehicle history reports market and raised prices by making exclusive deal agreements with car manufacturers and used car listing websites,...

FTC Consent Order Settles Hairy Exchange Of Competitively Sensitive Information

Bosley Inc., the nation’s largest surgical hair restoration company, has agreed to a consent order settling a Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) complaint alleging that the company exchanged competitively sensitive information with Hair Club Inc. before the two companies merged. Bosley, a subsidiary of Aderans Co Ltd., performs hair loss treatments at 22 offices across the United States.  According to the FTC...

Preemption Argument Runs Out Of Steam As Ninth Circuit Revives Natural Gas Case

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has revived plaintiffs’ state antitrust claims in In re: Western States Wholesale Natural Gas Litigation, finding that federal regulation of the interstate natural gas market does not preempt state antitrust law claims that energy companies manipulated intrastate transactions. The Ninth Circuit ruled that Congress intended its amendments to the Natural Gas Act to...

Antitrust Complaint Alleges Cut-Throat Chicago Tactics In Prom Dress Market

Boycotts, spying and defamation are the Chicago way of snuffing out competition in the prom dress market, according to an antitrust lawsuit filed against Peaches Boutique in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Hannah's Boutique Inc., a prom dress seller in the Chicago market alleges in Hannah's Boutique Inc. v. Barbara Ann Surdej et al. that established prom dress retailer Peaches...

Court Spanks Baby Formula Claims As Too Speculative To Survive

Antitrust claims against the main supplier of nutritional additives for infant formula in the United States have been thrown out because the plaintiff’s claims were too speculative to establish standing, a federal judge in Maryland has ruled. Judge William D. Quarles of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland granted defendant Martek Biosciences Corp. summary judgment in BNLfood Investment SARL v....