Antitrust and Competition

Our Antitrust and Competition attorneys handle both civil and criminal antitrust cases, from multidistrict litigation and class actions to investigations by federal and state officials.

We also offer strategic guidance on circumventing class actions, securing antitrust clearances, reviewing compliance programs, and developing a cogent competition strategy that will hold up in court, at the negotiation table, or before an antitrust agency.

Chambers USA has named our Antitrust and Competition Group a leading practice every year since 2010, saying, “Their work is exceptional—they are very detail-oriented, proactive, and approachable and they provide fantastic quality of work.” Global Competition Review ranked us as one of the top antitrust and competition practices in the nation.

Our group has achieved success for clients through every possible means: through decisive advocacy in court and strategic thinking during appeals, via advantageous settlement, by prevailing on critical pretrial rulings, and by consistently gaining tactical advantages such as narrowing the scope of litigation and limiting potential damages.

We are involved in bet-the-company litigation and have obtained important victories in precedent-setting cases, including complicated multidistrict litigation with billions of dollars on the line. And when a company’s market share has been threatened by anticompetitive conduct, we have brought suit and obtained significant victories at trial and through multimillion-dollar settlements.

Our clients include global corporations such as GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Teva, and Corteva. We represent leaders in the pharmaceutical and life sciences, financial services, aerospace, transportation, telecommunications, consumer products, and higher education industries. In addition, we serve as antitrust counsel for industry groups, including an electric utility initiative focused on greening the supply chain.

Litigation

Our antitrust and competition attorneys have tried and won antitrust cases in courts throughout the country. They have defended charges of price-fixing, monopolization, vertical and horizontal restraints, tying arrangements, and other alleged trade restraints. We scored back-to-back victories in appellate courts securing decisions upholding our clients' business practices. We represent clients in litigation and during investigations by the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ), Federal Trade Commission (FTC), U.S. attorneys, and state attorneys general.

We also help clients go on the offensive if they are being harmed by a competitor’s violations of antitrust law. We represented multiple municipalities and water utilities as plaintiffs in actions claiming that defendants engaged in anticompetitive conduct in connection with the sale of aluminum sulfate, a water treatment chemical, that have resulted in multi-million-dollar settlements for the municipalities and utilities.

Criminal Antitrust Investigations and Violations

We represent publicly held corporations, officers and directors, and prominent individuals from a variety of industries in federal and local grand jury investigations and defend them in any ensuing proceedings. Our recent successes include obtaining a more favorable sentencing outcome for an heir-locator company and a former bank executive convicted in a municipal bond bid-rigging case.

Our firm represents a global pharmaceutical company accused of orchestrating a criminal conspiracy to fix the price of generic drugs. We also represent multiple individuals in a criminal antitrust investigation related to no-poach agreements. Our attorneys also represent clients in responding to government inquiries and subpoenas.

Our experience covers not only alleged offenses in the antitrust area but also the entire range of white collar criminal violations.

Antitrust Implications of Business Combinations and Transactions

We advise on the antitrust implications of planned business combinations, acquisitions, and collaborations. We prepare pre-merger notification filings under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act for offerors and targets and handle "second requests" and other investigations initiated by the DOJ and FTC. We also provide antitrust advice for due diligence, integration planning, and antitrust risk allocation.

Our work in this area includes securing DOJ approval for our client, an international supplier of aerospace components and systems, to acquire a pump and engine control systems unit of a multinational conglomerate. We also provided antitrust counsel to a contact lens and eyewear retailer in its sale to a private equity firm.

Counseling on Compliance and Policy Issues

Our preventive counseling guides clients in the areas of product pricing, discounts, distribution arrangements, trade association activities, and risks presented by transactions. We offer comprehensive advice on:

Product pricing, including resale price maintenance, Robinson-Patman Act price discrimination, and promotional allowance provisions
Product distribution, including tying arrangements and other distribution issues
Trade association activities
Antitrust hiring and compensation issues, including wage-fixing, non-solicitation agreements, and the exchange of salary and compensation information

In addition, we draft compliance policies and conduct training seminars for an array of businesses. This includes providing ongoing counsel to an alliance of leading investor-owned utilities formed to develop voluntary environmental standards related to the supply chain.

False Advertising Litigation

Our competition and intellectual property lawyers have significant experience prosecuting and defending false advertising claims under the Lanham Act and related intellectual property and competition claims under other federal and state law. We have successfully prosecuted and defended cases involving billions of dollars in sales at issue. We also regularly assist clients in evaluating potential claims and in engaging competitors or regulators in correspondence with the aim, often successful, of curbing the conduct without resort to litigation.

We represented a global pharmaceutical company in obtaining a preliminary injunction against a competitor on Lanham Act false advertising and common law unfair competition claims. The court enjoined the competitor’s use of “false and misleading statements” about the client’s product in the competitor’s promotional materials.

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Experience

Class Action and Other Litigation

Obtained successful settlement for 19 municipalities and municipal water authorities alleging that numerous chemical companies and individuals violated federal and state antitrust law by engaging in an anticompetitive conspiracy that increased the price of aluminum sulfate—known as alum—a chemical used to treat water.
Secured the dismissal of a tying case against the landlord for Philadelphia International Airport, which was affirmed on appeal before the Third Circuit. In a precedential decision, the Third Circuit swept aside a broad-based attack to exclusive “pouring rights” agreements that are in place at airports and many sporting stadiums, colleges, and municipal buildings.

Secured the dismissal on behalf of a nonprofit physician-evaluation organization that certifies physicians practicing internal medicine in an antitrust class action lawsuit filed by four physicians attacking board certification. In the suit, filed in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, plaintiffs purported to bring claims on behalf of all internists required to pay for Maintenance of Certification (MOC), claimed that our client used its alleged market power in the market for initial certification to force internists to participate in MOC and that our client unlawfully created and maintained monopoly power in the MOC market. The Third Circuit affirmed the dismissal holding that plaintiffs failed to allege a viable tying claim.
Obtained dismissal of an antitrust action against a convenience store alleging federal antitrust and state law claims, including tortious interference with existing and prospective contract, abuse of process, and civil conspiracy, against our client and various individuals and entities related to the development of a retail project with multiple commercial uses and tenants.
Scored a landmark victory when the court granted summary judgment in favor of a global pharmaceutical company, affirmed on appeal, dismissing claims that the company and a co-defendant filed sham patent cases to extend the period of exclusivity for its antidepressant medication.
Represent a global agriculture company in antitrust class actions in which the plaintiffs alleged a group boycott among agricultural manufacturers, wholesalers, and large retailers in the U.S.
Represent a nonprofit public health group against an antitrust suit filed by an online prescription drug price comparison site, accusing defendants of conspiring to suppress competition in the online pharmacy market by allegedly influencing various internet websites, such as search engines Google and Bing, to blacklist plaintiff’s website. Plaintiff brought this complaint under Section 1 of the Sherman Act asserting the aforementioned conspiracy, stating that it restrained trade.
Represent one of the largest poultry processors in the country in a class action in which the plaintiffs allege that virtually all U.S. poultry producers engaged in an unlawful conspiracy to lower contract prices paid to growers and limiting competition among producers to compete to contract with growers.
Succeeding through motions to dismiss, a motion for summary judgment, and in class certification proceedings in narrowing the claims of an indirect purchaser class against a global pharmaceutical company from a nationwide class to four states. We obtained a settlement resolving all of the claims of the indirect purchaser class for $35 million, and separately settled claims with a group of health plans for $11 million and with the direct purchaser class for $150 million.
Represent an American multinational financial services corporation in connection with a class action in which the plaintiffs claim that large salmon farmers have conspired to raise and set wholesale prices in violation of the antitrust laws. Our client was served a subpoena for documents and deposition in the matter.
Obtained dismissal of the indirect purchaser actions alleging price-fixing and monopolization in the sale of ductile iron pipe fittings and, after indirect purchasers filed amended complaints, secured the dismissal of the only Sherman Act claim and narrowed the state claims.
Represented 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 also represented the three manufacturers in connection with a concurrent Department of Justice investigation into the allegations.
Represented a large manufacturer, which opted out of a class action, that was injured by an international price-fixing conspiracy of its suppliers, collecting more damages than any other purchaser and, in fact, the entire class combined.
Represented a bank in an investigation into its proposed merger with another regional bank. The U.S. Department of Justice launched the investigation in parallel to an investigation by the Federal Reserve Bank.

Criminal Antitrust Investigations and Violations

Represented a global pharmaceutical company in the single largest criminal antitrust case being prosecuted in the United States. Litigation in the civil arena led to criminal indictments for price-fixing in generics, creating a vast criminal antitrust case. We obtained a favorable settlement on behalf of our client. The case was closely followed by the media and the outcome is important for the future of criminal antitrust enforcement, particularly in the pharmaceutical industry.
Represent several individuals in connection with a criminal investigation by the DOJ Antitrust Division into an alleged agreement among suppliers of engineering services not to poach each other’s employee.
Defended a client in the municipal bond industry in a federal collusion case where the individual was accused of bid-rigging. We secured a favorable outcome for the client at sentencing.

Antitrust Implications of Planned Business Combinations, Acquisitions, and Collaborations

Advised a large utilities infrastructure company in connection with a now-completed billion-dollar transaction, including responding to informal FTC inquiries.
Represented 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.

Antitrust Counseling on Compliance and Policy Issues

Serve as antitrust counsel to an innovator of minerals for pharmaceutical and agricultural uses. Ballard Spahr provides ongoing counseling with respect to business transactions, including licensing and distribution agreements.
Represent a national organization of utilities formed to develop voluntary environmental standards and guidance for the industry supply chain.

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Antitrust Loss Recovery: Helping Clients Seek Recovery for Overcharges

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Rankings and Recognition

Insights, News, and Events

DOJ Gives Up on Its Sole Remaining Criminal No-Poach Prosecution

Ballard Spahr's Marcel Pratt Named to Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors

Ballard Spahr's Leslie John, Leita Walker Named to Benchmark Litigation's Top 250 Women

Draft Merger Guidelines Demonstrate Continued Focus of DOJ and FTC on Labor Market

Resources

Antitrust and Competition Course Catalog

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