Antitrust

Our experience includes these matters:

Class Action and Other Litigation

• A major pharmaceutical manufacturer retained us to represent it in four unrelated antitrust actions against it in various jurisdictions, including class action litigation involving an alleged conspiracy with manufacturers and authorized wholesalers to exclude secondary wholesalers from the prescription drug wholesale market and purported monopolization claims as to three prescription drugs arising from supposedly sham patent litigation and citizen petitions filed with the Food and Drug Administration.
  
  
• We defended a major public chemical manufacturer in an investigation by the Antitrust Division into an alleged cartel to restrict output and follow-on multidistrict federal and state court litigation. After conducting a seven-year investigation, the division declined to take any action. We favorably settled the civil litigation.
  
  
• A major pharmaceutical manufacturer retained us to defend it in the largest federal antitrust case in the United States, as well as in numerous related state court class actions throughout the country in which aggregated damages claims exceeded 10s of billions of dollars. By various motions, we conceived and successfully pursued novel arguments that led to arranging a complex yet innovative resolution of the class claims and a very favorable settlement of the remaining claims.
  
  
• We represent three leading egg producers in multiple putative class actions alleging an unlawful conspiracy to fix and inflate the prices of egg products and shell eggs by restricting the production of eggs and dividing up market share for shell eggs in violation of antitrust laws. We are also representing the three manufacturers in connection with a concurrent Department of Justice investigation into the allegations.
  
  
• A well-known banking institution retained us to defend it in a nationwide class action against MasterCard, Visa, and five other banks alleging price-fixing conspiracies involving foreign currency conversion fees charged on credit card transactions. After obtaining rulings significantly narrowing the size of the class, including a ruling that cardholders from other banks could not adequately represent our client's cardholders, the defendants negotiated a favorable settlement that has been preliminarily approved by the court.
  
  
• We represented a Fortune 1000 manufacturer in connection with damages it sustained as a result of an international price-fixing conspiracy engaged in by its suppliers. We resolved the litigation on terms more favorable than any other purchaser, including the class from which our client opted out.
  
  
• We defended a large services corporation against allegations that it participated in a market allocation scheme. We successfully persuaded the Antitrust Division not to bring charges.
  
  
• We successfully persuaded the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit to affirm the grant of summary judgment for our client, a major distributor of salon-only hair care products, in its defense against a group boycott claim.
  
  
• We defended a major East Coast developer of residential homes in an antitrust action alleging that various home builders and real estate brokers engaged in an unlawful boycott of the plaintiff real estate broker. We successfully obtained summary judgment for the home developer.
  
  
• AT&T retained us to defend it in a $200-plus million antitrust and telecommunications suit brought by a plaintiff charging that its business had been unlawfully restricted. After a 12-week jury trial, we obtained a defense verdict. Before that case, we had successfully defended AT&T in numerous other cases involving charges of monopolization and attempted monopolization.

Antitrust Implications of Planned Business Combinations, Acquisitions, and Collaborations

• We are advising a large utilities infrastructure company in connection with a now-completed billion-dollar transaction, including responding to informal FTC inquiries.
  
  
• We are representing a manufacturer of molecular diagnostic tests in connection with a review by the FTC into a proposed merger with a manufacturer of cancer screening tests. After a period of intensive litigation, including extensive responses to second requests, the parties decided not to proceed with the transaction.
  
  
• We convinced the FTC to allow a merger between our client and another manufacturer of diagnostic tests to proceed after an informal investigation by the FTC into the proposed merger.
  
  
• On behalf of a specialty gas manufacturer proceeding with a merger, we responded successfully to informal FTC inquiries, including producing the chief executive officer of our client for an informal interview. The waiting period expired without a second request.
  
  
• We successfully represented a daily newspaper in its acquisition of another daily newspaper. Our client received a second request, but through extensive productions and interviews, we were able to demonstrate that the transaction would not be harmful to competition. The transaction was completed.

Antitrust Counseling on Compliance and Policy Issues

• We are advising professional sports clients on the potential formation of a group-selling organization.
  
  
• We are providing antitrust and environmental advice to a property owners association in Northeastern Pennsylvania in establishing a common form gas lease that provides environmental protections.
  
  
• We represent a national organization of utilities formed to develop voluntary environmental standards and guidance for the industry supply chain.
  
  
• We are advising independent system operators, public power entities, traditional utilities, independent generators, and power marketers on the electric power and transmission markets.