Antitrust Group

Payments News Update – May 6, 2022

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: Senators Grill Visa, Mastercard Execs Over Swipe Fees The Hill – May 4, 2022 Senators on Wednesday scrutinized Visa and Mastercard for raising swipe fees on merchants, costs that they say will be passed down to consumers amid surging inflation. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), a longtime critic of the credit card giants, called for new...

The Antitrust Week In Review

Here are some of the developments in antitrust news this past week that we found interesting and are following. Elon Musk's early Twitter stock buy under FTC scrutiny -The Information.  Tesla Inc Chief Executive Elon Musk's initial 9% stake purchase in Twitter Inc is being probed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), The Information reported. The FTC is looking into whether Musk complied with an antitrust...

Despite Setbacks, Department of Justice Charges Full Speed Ahead in Litigating Labor Antitrust Cases

By James J. Kovacs In the course of 24 hours, juries returned non-guilty verdicts for defendants in two criminal wage fixing and market allocation cases brought by the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”). Despite these setbacks, the DOJ shows no signs of slowing down its antitrust investigations and enforcement efforts in labor markets. In United States v. Jindal et al., the DOJ alleged that the former...

The Danger of Waiting for a Finding of Anticompetitive Behaviour: Gemalto Sees its Claim Against the Smart Card Chips Cartel Time Barred

By Simon Yeung and Georgiana Stables

The secrecy of cartels—and victims’ consequent limited knowledge of them—has led the English courts to relax the requirement that claimants plead detailed statements of case at the outset of litigation. The flipside is that, under the “statement of claim” test, the limitation clock may start to run sooner than claimants think.

In January 2022, the question of whether a...

Plaintiff Class Appeals Antitrust Decision in Sutter Health Case

Case to be appealed to Ninth Circuit; jury made decision based on incorrect legal instructions and incomplete evidence

Today, the Plaintiffs in an antitrust case entitled Sidibe et al. v. Sutter Health are announcing their decision to appeal the Final Judgment entered in that case.  The suit alleged that defendant Sutter Health, a dominant hospital system in numerous Northern California markets, caused approximately...

The Antitrust Week In Review

Here are some of the developments in antitrust news this past week that we found interesting and are following. U.S. antitrust authorities clear Prince, Ferro specialty chemical deal.  Specialty chemical maker Prince International Corp won U.S. antitrust approval to merge with rival Ferro Corp on condition that it sell three facilities, the Federal Trade Commission said. EU antitrust regulators cleared the deal in...

Payments News Update - April 22, 2022

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: Lawmakers Seek to Cancel Card Fee Increases Payments Dive – April 21, 2022 A bipartisan group of four lawmakers implored Visa and Mastercard on Friday to cancel credit and debit card "swipe" fee increases planned for this month, warning them about practices that could raise antitrust concerns. In an April 15 letter to the CEOs of Visa and Mastercard, the Democrats...

FTC Chair Khan Squares the Circle With an “Interdisciplinary Approach” to Protecting Privacy and Competition

Government efforts to protect competition and privacy could become more closely aligned under an “interdisciplinary approach” to enforcement announced by Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan. It’s no secret that a handful of major tech firms touch nearly every aspect of modern life.  Nor is it a surprise that their business models often rely on collecting and monetizing user information in order to...

The Antitrust Week In Review

Here are some of the developments in antitrust news this past week that we found interesting and are following.   Reducing inequality, hiking minimum wage could boost U.S. economy -White House.  Boosting enforcement of antidiscrimination and antitrust laws, raising the federal minimum wage and higher unionization rates could substantially boost U.S. economic growth, a new report by President Joe Biden's top...

Mastercard’s Digital Fee Hike Means Double Trouble for Merchants

By Owen Glist As part of the annual spring ritual of interchange increases and new network fees, Mastercard has announced that it is more than doubling its “Digital Enablement Fee.”  This hefty price hike raises both the cost of digital transactions and antitrust concerns. Mastercard’s Digital Enablement Fee is essentially a tax the network imposes for “enabling” online transactions, also known as...