Antitrust Group

NBA Legend Bill Russell Challenges NCAA In Court

Basketball legend Bill Russell, who led the Boston Celtics dynasty that dominated the NBA in the 1960s, is charging down court once again, but this time it’s in a federal – not a basketball – court. The former basketball star at the University of San Francisco, five-time winner of the NBA Most Valuable Player Award and a 12-time All-Star, is suing the NCAA, the Collegiate Licensing Company (“CLC”) and...

Federal Judge Gives Green Light To Texas Taxicab Suit

Federal Judge David C. Godbey of the Northern District of Texas has green lighted a suit alleging taxicab companies conspired to monopolize by fixing prices that drivers must pay to operate a taxicab in certain counties in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area. The judge denied the defendants’ motion to dismiss the plaintiffs’ complaint in Association of Taxicab Operators USA v. Yellow Checker Cab Company of...

Europeans Tightening Oversight Of Commodities Markets

The European Commission is expected to unveil proposed legislation in the coming weeks designed to curb speculation in commodities trading, which has been blamed for sharp increases in energy and food prices. A draft of the Commission’s proposed revisions to the EU’s 2004 Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (“MiFID”) obtained by some news outlets would require “that all trading venues on which...

Bridgestone Pleads Guilty To Hosing Bids For Marine Hose

The U.S. Department of Justice has announced that Tokyo based manufacturer Bridgestone Corp. has agreed to plead guilty to rigging bids and making corrupt payments to government officials in Latin America related to the sale of marine hose and other industrial products. As part of the plea bargain struck with the Department of Justice, Bridgestone is pleading guilty to violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices...

European Commission Gets Split Decision In Beer And Acrylic Glass Antitrust Appeals

The European Commission has received a split decision in two appeals of multi-million euro fines it imposed for anticompetitive conduct in beer and acrylic glass markets. The European General Court has annulled the European Commission’s 31.66 million euro antitrust fine assessed against beer brewer Koninklijke Grolsch NV.  In case T-234/07, Koninklijke Grolsch v. Commission, the European General Court focused on...

Circuit Court Affirms Dismissal Of Challenge To Nestle Ice Cream Merger

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit has affirmed the dismissal of a claim that the 2003 merger between Nestlé S.A.’s subsidiary, Nestlé Puerto Rico (Nestlé PR), and ice cream distributer, Payco Foods Corp., violated the Sherman and Clayton Antitrust Acts. The plaintiff in Sterling Merch., Inc. v. Nestlé S.A. et al. is a distributer of ice cream in Puerto Rico.  Nestlé S.A. manufactures ice cream...

Federal Judge Dismisses eBay Derivative Litigation

Judge Leonard P. Stark of the U.S. District Court for Delaware has dismissed a derivative action against eBay Inc. The plaintiff in In re eBay, Inc., the Robert F. Booth Trust, alleged that eBay’s board of directors violated the Clayton Act when they circulated a proxy statement recommending shareholders elect Dawn G. Lepore, a 10-year veteran of the board, to another term.  Section 8 of the Clayton Act...

Third Circuit Rules Hydrogen Peroxide Can't Wipe Out Comcast Class

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has upheld the certification of a consumer class alleging antitrust violations against cable distributor Comcast.

The appellate court ruled in Behrend v. Comcast Corp. that certification was wholly consistent with its instructions to district courts in the seminal case of In re Hydrogen Peroxide, 552 F.3d 305 (3d Cir. 2008), which outlines the standards a district court...

U.K. Shoots Down Sky’s Control Over Pay TV Movie Market

The U.K.’s Competition Commission has announced that it has provisionally found that British Sky Broadcasting’s control over the pay TV movie market is restricting competition among rivals, leading to higher prices and fewer choices for consumers. The investigation, which the Commission began in August 2010, followed a three-year study of the pay TV market by the U.K.’s communications regulator,...

Federal Judge Red Lights Truck Rental Price-Fixing Case Against U-Haul

A federal judge in Massachusetts has dismissed a putative class action that claimed that U-Haul International Inc. and its parent company, Amerco engaged in a truck rental price-fixing scheme. The plaintiff in Liu v. Amerco alleged that U-Haul and Amerco engaged in an unfair or deceptive act in violation of Massachusetts law, and caused prices for truck rentals to rise, by inviting competitor Avis Budget Group Inc....