Antitrust Litigation

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...

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....

District Court Denies Snap Judgment In Fasteners Class Action

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania has denied a motion in the In re Fasteners Antitrust Litigation class action to dismiss antitrust claims alleging that YKK and other fastener manufacturers engaged in price fixing. Defendants sought dismissal of the claims on grounds of statute of limitations and lack of evidence. The class action was filed in May 2010, by apparel manufacturers who...

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

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...

Viacom And Cablevision Agree To Streaming Settlement

Viacom and Cablevision have settled their dispute over streaming media content. Viacom, which offers MTV, VH1, CMT, Nickelodeon, BET, Comedy Central, and Spike TV, accused Cablevision of using its new iPad app to illegally stream such popular media content.  In a jointly issued statement, the companies announced they “were able to resolve the iPad matter and an unrelated business matter to their mutual...

Second Circuit Gives Attorney One More Try In Bond Market Antitrust Suit Against Citigroup

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has given a sliver of hope to an attorney seeking to resurrect her claims that Citigroup abused its market power to block her innovative method of structuring bonds for municipalities seeking to finance the construction and renovation of airport terminals. Though it affirmed the district court’s dismissal of the complaint in Williams v. Citigroup Inc. et al., for...

Class Action Claims E-Book Price Fixing Conspiracy By Apple And Publishers

A class action complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California alleges that Apple and five major publishers engaged in a price-fixing conspiracy to block competition from Amazon’s e-reader, the Kindle. The complaint in Petru et al. v. Apple, Inc. et al. alleges that prior to the launch of Apple’s iPad, Apple, HarperCollins, Penguin, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, and Hachette Book...

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

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...

QSGI Charges IBM Abused Power In Used Computer Market

QSGI Inc., the former second largest reseller of IBM mainframe computers, has filed a multi-million dollar antitrust suit against IBM in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. The complaint in QSGI Inc. v. IBM Global Financing alleges that IBM violated the Florida Antitrust Act and the Florida Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act by adopting a rule that devastated QSGI’s ability to...