Update November 2010: The court has certified a class of direct purchasers. Eastern District of Pennsylvania Judge Anita B. Brody rejected Glaxo-SmithKline’s (GSK) motion to dismiss a case alleging that it anticompetitively delayed the entry of generic Flonase into the market by filing citizens petitions before the FDA. GSK argued that its conduct was protected […]
Author Archives: Steve Semeraro
Hospital’s Campaign to Block New Entrant Protected by Noerr-Pennington Doctrine
June 3, 2011 – 8:52 am
The Seventh Circuit has affirmed the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of Lake Forest Hospital in a Section 2 case filed by the Mercatus Group, which was attempting to open a competing health care facility. Lake Forest adopted a multi-pronged campaign to (1) lobby the local council not to grant Mercatus the […]
Power Purchaser Lacks Standing
June 1, 2011 – 3:32 pm
Update June 2011: The court denied the plaintiff’s motion to reconsider its decision. Southern District of NY Judge Shira Scheindlin ruled that Plaintiff, Charles Simon, lacked standing to sue electric power supplier KeySpan and Morgan Stanley for allegedly manipulating the price of power sold to Simon’s utility, Con Edison. KeySpan paid $12 million to settle […]
EC Investigates Proposed Hard Disc Drive Mergers
June 1, 2011 – 10:35 am
The European Commission has opened two merger investigations involving hard disk drive manufacturers. The first transaction concerns Seagate Technology’s planned acquisition business of Samsung HDD business, and the second concerns Western Digital Corp.’s planned acquisition of Hitachi HDD business.
EC Investigated Container Liner Shipping
June 1, 2011 – 10:31 am
European Commission officials inspected container liner shipping companies concerning possible antitrust violations.
Asparagus Seed Patent Challenge Needs to Allege Knowing Fraud to Support Antitrust Claims
June 1, 2011 – 10:23 am
District of New Jersey Judge Freda L. Wolfson dismissed antitrust claims filed by Jersey Asparagus Farms Inc. against Rutgers University concerning patents for asparagus seeds. The plaintiff alleged that the patents were invalid on the ground that Rutgers failed to disclose prior art to the PTO. Recognizing that fraudulently obtaining a patent may violate the antitrust […]
Welder Conspiracy Case to Move Forward
June 1, 2011 – 10:09 am
District of Washington Judge Lonny Suko refused to dismiss a conspiracy claim brought by ARC against AMH. ARC alleges that AMH made false statements about ARC, emailing more than dozen of its customers and falsely telling reporting that ARC had gone out of business. The email also asked the customers to loan AMH one of ARC’s welders, and a few months later, AMH announced at […]
DOJ Sues to Block On-line Tax Preparation Software Merger
June 1, 2011 – 9:58 am
The Antitrust Division has sued to block H&R Block’s acquisition of TaxACT, an on-line software provider. H&R and TaxACT are the number 2 and 3 providers of on-line tax prep software behind Intuit’s TurboTax. The Division explained that it uncovered H&R Block documents indicating that the purpose of the merger was to eliminate a competitor […]
Monoplization Case Against Pfizer to Go Forward
June 1, 2011 – 9:31 am
Judge Faith Hochberg, District of New Jersey, denied Pfizer’s motion to dismiss claims alleging that it unlawfully sought to monopolize the market for gabapentin products. Pharmacies purchasing the drugs argued that Pfizer violated the antitrust laws by, inter alia, manipulating the patent approval process and filing sham law suits. The court rejected Pfizer’s defenses that […]
DOJ Sues to Block POS Card Reader Merger
June 1, 2011 – 9:16 am
The Antitrust Division has sued to block of merger of VeriFone and Hypercom, manufacturers of point of sale credit and debit card reader. The two U.S. companies currently compete with French-based Ingenico in what is essentially a three competitor market. The Division alleges that the 3-2 merger would raise prices for retailers purchasing POS card […]