Antitrust Today

Two Calls Go Against The NCAA In Student-Athletes’ Name and Likeness Litigation

By David Scupp The NCAA was on the losing end of two orders entered this week in the In re NCAA Student Athlete Name & Likeness Licensing Litigation. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California denied the NCAA’s motion for leave to file a motion for partial reconsideration of the court’s order denying the NCAA’s motion for summary judgment on antitrust claims of current and former...

DOJ And FTC Will Discuss Whether Bundled Discounts Are A Bundle Of Antitrust Trouble Or A Bundle Of Joy For Consumers

By Ankur Kapoor[1] The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice will attempt to unravel the antitrust pros and cons of bundled discounts and other conditional-pricing practices in a one-day public workshop on June 23, 2014. Bundled discounts, which are discounts offered for the purchase of a “bundle” of goods or services, exist in many markets.  The...

The NBA Constitution Might Well Block Donald Sterling From Challenging A Forced Sale Of His Clippers In Court

By Jeffery I. Shinder and David Scupp Donald Sterling is going to find the NBA constitution a major roadblock if he attempts to fight in court the NBA’s decision to seek his ouster as owner of the Los Angeles Clippers. Yesterday, we analyzed the antitrust implications of the NBA’s decision to respond forcefully to Sterling’s recently reported offensive and racially charged comments.  In addition to...

Can The NBA Force A Sale Of Sterling's Clippers Without Running Afoul Of The Antitrust Laws?

By Jeffery I. Shinder and David Scupp

We applaud the NBA for the firm stance it took against racism, which we believe should have no place in our country.  Having said that, we note that some have suggested that Donald Sterling may file an antitrust lawsuit to maintain his grip on the Clippers, or to gain some leverage to get full value for the team in a forced sale.  Notwithstanding our views on his conduct, we...

Tech Heavyweights Settle Wage-Fixing Fight For $324 Million

By David Golden Google, Apple, Adobe Systems, and Intel have settled an antitrust class action lawsuit brought by software engineers in the high tech industry for a reported $324 million. The lawsuit, In re High-Tech Employee Antitrust Litigation, alleged that the four companies (along with Intuit, Pixar, and Lucasfilm) agreed to refrain from “poaching” each other’s employees, a common practice in...

Sixth Circuit Pulls Plug on Merging Hospital’s Weakened Firm Defense

By Marlene Koury The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has upheld a Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) order unwinding a merger of two Ohio hospitals that unsuccessfully sought to breathe life into a “weakened firm defense.” In a unanimous opinion, a three-judge panel of the Sixth Circuit denied ProMedica’s petition to overturn a Federal Trade Commission ruling, which ordered ProMedica to...

Barclays Settles Second LIBOR Mis-Selling Case

A View from Constantine Cannon’s London Office By Natalia Mikolajczyk Barclays confirmed on Friday that it has settled another case alleging that it mis-sold LIBOR-tied derivative products. The lawsuit was filed by Domingos Da Silva Teixeira (DST), a family-owned construction and property company based in Braga, Portugal. As reported by the Financial Times, DST alleged that the British bank engaged in...

Credit Card Issuers Defeat Claims They Conspired To Use Arbitration to Block Class Actions

By Owen Glist American Express, Chase, and Discover have prevailed in a bench trial of a class action charging that the nation’s largest credit card issuers illegally agreed to prevent cardholders from using class actions to sue them. While Judge William H. Pauley III of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled in favor of the defendants on Thursday, he also indicated the...

Barclays Settles First LIBOR “Test Case”

A View from Constantine Cannon’s London Office By Michael Petrides Barclays announced on Monday that it has reached an out of court settlement of British LIBOR-related litigation with Graiseley Properties, owner of Guardian Care Homes (GCH). The case concerned two interest rate swap contracts entered into by Graiseley and Barclays. Graiseley suffered substantial losses when base LIBOR rates fell. ...

Libor Antitrust Plaintiffs Strike Out Again

By Jean Kim The antitrust claims of yet another putative class of Libor plaintiffs have been dismissed by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Finding that the plaintiff failed to adequately plead antitrust standing, Judge George Daniels dismissed the antitrust claims in Laydon v. Mizuho Bank, Ltd., a class action that alleges more than 20 banks manipulated the Euroyen Tokyo Interbank...