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FTC Charges Pipe Fitting Price Fixing

Posted  01/18/12
The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) has filed a complaint alleging price fixing against the three largest U.S. suppliers of ductile iron pipe fittings – Star Pipe Products, Ltd., McWane, Inc., and Sigma Corp. The FTC alleges that these three competitors violated Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act ("FTCA") by conspiring to fix prices for ductile iron pipe fittings, which are used in municipal water...

State-Action Stops FTC Appeal To Enjoin Hospital Acquisition

Posted  01/2/12
The Eleventh Circuit recently affirmed the decision of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia to dismiss the FTC’s antitrust challenge to the proposed acquisition of Palmyra Park Hospital, Inc. (“Palmyra”) and the subsequent lease of Palmyra to Phoebe Putney Health System, Inc. (“PPHS”) or one of its subsidiaries.  As the district court did, the Eleventh Circuit predicated its decision...

Federal Court Authorizes Plaintiffs To Tune Into iPod Antitrust Class Action Against Apple

Posted  12/12/11
Federal Judge James Ware of the Northern District of California has certified a class of iPod purchasers, allowing an antitrust class action to proceed against Apple Computer, Inc. (“Apple”). The plaintiffs in The Apple iPod iTunes Antitrust Litigation contend that Apple violated state and federal antitrust laws by monopolizing markets for digital music downloads and portable digital media players, excluding...

Heavy Duty Truck Transmission Antitrust Suit Picks Up Speed In Delaware

Posted  10/20/11
Federal Judge Sue L. Robinson in the District of Delaware has given the go-ahead to a suit alleging truck manufacturers conspired to create and maintain a monopoly with supracompetitive prices in the market for heavy duty truck transmissions. Judge Robinson has denied the defendants’ motion to dismiss the complaint in Wallach v. Eaton Corp. The class action, brought by Mark S. Wallach, the bankruptcy trustee...

Circuit Court Affirms Dismissal Of Challenge To Nestle Ice Cream Merger

Posted  09/19/11
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...

IBM Not Out Of The Regulatory Woods Despite Withdrawal Of Emulator Complaints

Posted  08/24/11
Although three rivals of IBM have dropped their complaints that IBM illegally tied its mainframe hardware to its operating system, the computer giant is not out of regulatory woods yet. Both the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the European Commission maintain ongoing antitrust investigations – sparked by the complaints – into a possible monopoly IBM holds in the mainframe computer market. In a filing...

Plaintiffs Will Need To Think Outside The Cable Box To Save Tying Claims

Posted  08/15/11
Plaintiffs claiming that Cablevision abuses market power in requiring subscribers to rent cable boxes are going to have to think outside the box after being told by the U.S. District Court of New Jersey for the third time that their claims of illegal tying and monopolization are inadequate. Judge Jose Linares has dismissed the second amended complaint in Marchese v. Cablevision Systems Corp., but given plaintiffs...

GSI Technology Sues Cypress Semiconductor In High-Tech Memory Suit

Posted  08/1/11
GSI Technology, a producer of computer memory products, has filed an antitrust complaint charging Cypress Semiconductor with monopolizing the high-tech static random access memory (“SRAM”) market. Cypress is one of the major players in the market for static random access memory SRAM market, while GSI is a much smaller producer. The complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of...

U.S. v. Microsoft Was A Decade-Long Education On Antitrust In The New Economy

Posted  06/29/11
The end of the decade-long federal court supervision of Microsoft’s licensing practices last month provides an opportunity to reflect on the impact that case has had.  A lasting legacy of the U.S. v. Microsoft case is that monopolists in dynamic and rapidly changing high-tech industries do not receive special treatment under the Sherman Act.  There is no presumption that high market shares will be counteracted by...

Canadian Court Green Lights Worldwide Diamond Price-Fixing Case Against De Beers

Posted  06/15/11
A justice of the British Columbia Supreme Court has ruled that an alleged worldwide diamond cartel led by rough diamond seller De Beers had sufficient anticompetitive impact on Canadian consumers to enable a price-fixing class action to survive a motion to dismiss at the pleading stage. The plaintiff alleges that De Beers and the other defendants sought to eliminate competition in the sale of gem grade diamonds in...