Antitrust Group

British Competition Authorities Revise Penalty Guidelines

The Office of Fair Trading (the “OFT”) – the United Kingdom’s consumer and competition authority – has announced new guidelines for setting penalties for violations of British competition laws. The most drastic change contained in the new guidelines increases the maximum starting point for calculating a penalty from 10 to 30 percent of a company’s relevant turnover. The OFT indicated that it is...

Aftermarket Autoparts Manufacturers Lose Bid To Stop Antitrust Class Action

Taiwanese manufacturers of aftermarket auto parts will have to continue litigating an antitrust class action as a result of the denial of their motion to dismiss the second amended complaint in Fond Du Lac Bumper Exchange Inc. v. Jui Li Enterprise Co. Ltd. et al. Judge Lynn Adelman of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin rejected the arguments of defendants Taiwan Kai Yih Industrial Co.,...

Court Finds Musical Instrument Antitrust Claims Out Of Tune Under Twombly

Judge Larry Burns of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California has granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss plaintiffs’ antitrust claim under Section One of the Sherman Act in In re: National Association of Music Merchants, Musical Instruments and Equipment Antitrust Litigation. The plaintiffs alleged that defendants conspired to fix the prices of acoustic, electric and bass guitars, and...

Court Rejects Comcast Bid To Shuttle High-Speed Antitrust Claims Into Arbitration

Judge Stefan Underhill of the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut has rejected Comcast Corp.’s bid to force antitrust claims in a putative class action into arbitration, despite the plaintiff’s signing of an arbitration clause in a subscriber agreement. In denying Comcast’s motion to compel arbitration in Fromer v. Comcast Corp., the court found the class action waiver clause in Comcast’s...

U.S. Soccer Federation Scores Summary Judgment On Antitrust Claims

Judge Harry Leinenweber of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois has granted the United States Soccer Federation and Major League Soccer summary judgment on antitrust claims that they conspired to drive promotion company ChampionsWorld out of business. The U.S. Soccer Federation represents American soccer on the international scale through the U.S. Olympic Committee and the Fédération...

Mobile Phone Companies Ask Court To Hang Up On Texters

Defendants in In re A2P SMS Antitrust Litigation are asking the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to dismiss antitrust claims alleging that mobile phone companies conspired with wireless providers to control the price of application-to-person messaging. Club Texting, Inc., iSpeedbuy LLC and Textpower, Inc. filed an antitrust class action against AT&T Mobility LLC, Verizon Wireless LLC,...

Internet Adult Entertainment Antitrust Suit Passes Scrutiny

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and ICM Registry, the sole operator of the .XXX domain name registry, are going to have to continue litigating antitrust claims brought by adult filmmaker Digital Playground Inc. and Manwin Licensing International SARL. Judge Phillip S. Gutierrez of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California is permitting plaintiffs in Manwin...

Simon Says Mall Monopolization Claims Should Be Tossed

Shopping mall giant Simon Property Group, Inc. on Friday asked a federal court in Indiana to dismiss antitrust claims brought by competitor Gumwood HP Shopping Partners, claiming that a magistrate judge misapplied federal antitrust law in recommending that Simon’s motion to dismiss be denied. Simon claims that Magistrate Judge Christopher A. Nuechterlein of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of...