Antitrust Insights and Analysis

German High Court Slams Facebook’s Data Collection Practices As It Reinstates Order

In a landmark ruling, Germany’s highest civil court criticized Facebook for allegedly abusing its “dominant market position on the social network market” as it reinstated an order by the Federal Cartel Office (“FCO”) restraining Facebook’s data collection practices. The Federal Court of Justice reversed an appellate court’s preliminary suspension of the order restraining Facebook, pending full...

Constantine Cannon Names New Partner

Constantine Cannon LLP is pleased to announce that Daniel Vitelli has been named partner at the firm.  Click here to read more.

Universities May Incur Antitrust Liability Acting Jointly in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

The upheaval caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has forced virtually every company and institution engaged in commercial transactions to re-evaluate and drastically alter its business practices.  While they are wise to do so, they would also be wise to remember that their susceptibility to the commercial effects of the pandemic offers no immunity from antitrust enforcement where companies have entered into...

Antitrust Enforcers Confront Coronavirus by Easing Up on Competitors While Cracking Down on Price Gougers

The coronavirus pandemic is forcing antitrust enforcers around the globe to adjust their competition policies to protect their constituents from both the virus and the unscrupulous. In an antitrust variant of the Hippocratic Oath, antitrust enforcers are first easing up on competition law to ensure that enforcement does not hinder life-saving efforts at cooperation by competitors.  For example, last week in the...

FTC Challenge Pushes Schick Deal to Acquire Harry’s Off The Razor’s Edge

Edgewell Personal Care Co., the parent company of Schick, has abandoned its plans to purchase Harry’s Razors just days after the Federal Trade Commission filed a complaint to block the merger earlier this month. In May 2019, Edgewell entered into an agreement to purchase Harry’s Inc., a start-up shaving company, for approximately $1.37 billion in stock and cash. The two companies compete in the “wet shave”...

The Antitrust Week In Review

Here are some of the developments in antitrust news this past week that we found interesting and are following. Sutter Health to Pay $575 Million to Settle Antitrust Lawsuit.  Sutter Health, the large hospital system in Northern California, said Friday that it had agreed to pay $575 million to settle claims of anti-competitive behavior brought by the California state attorney general as well as unions and...

Trillium Argues Oregon Hospitals Conspired to Prevent Insurer’s Entry into State-Regulated Medicaid Markets

Three major hospital systems are accused of taking advantage of state regulation of healthcare to snuff out competition in a novel antitrust case filed in the United States District Court for the District of Oregon. Trillium Community Health Plan, a subsidiary of the Centene Corporation, alleges numerous entities and individuals, including three prominent hospital systems—Legacy Health, Providence Health &...

Congress Steps Up Its Oversight of Competition in Intellectual Property Licensing

By Seth D. Greenstein Congress is staking out new markers in its oversight of intellectual property licensing as Senators and Representatives grapple with a changing technological landscape. The House Judiciary Committee’s ongoing bipartisan investigation into competition in digital markets—including requests for information to Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Apple—garnered significant press attention...

DOJ Tells Congress Criminal Prosecution of No-Poach Agreements is Still a “High Priority”

By J. Wyatt Fore Although federal antitrust regulators have yet to file criminal charges against no-poach agreements, such prosecutions may be forthcoming, according to testimony on Capitol Hill earlier this week. On Tuesday, the Antitrust Subcommittee of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on Competition in Labor Markets, which included an interesting exchange about the federal government’s...

Net Neutrality Setback in Mozilla Opens the Door for State Regulation

By J. Wyatt Fore Although the cause of net neutrality suffered a setback at the federal level earlier this month with the decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in Mozilla Corporation v. FCC, that decision also opens the door for state regulators to step in. The D.C. Circuit generally upheld the Federal Communications Commission’s (“FCC”) January 2018 order in In the Matter of Restoring...