The Fifth Circuit has rejected a class challenge to AT&T exclusive dealing agreements with buildings to provide a so-called Triple Play of telephone, internet, and television services. The court rejected the claim on the ground that the plaintiffs allegation that a single apartment building could constitute a relevant geographic market was too narrow. Although plaintiffs [...]
Category Archives: US Federal Courts
AT&T Exclusive Phone, TV, Internet Deals with Apartment Buildings Not Anticompetitive
February 27, 2010 – 9:57 pm
Georgia Federal Court Upholds Reverse Payment Drug Patent Settlement
February 27, 2010 – 9:54 pm
In a multi-district consolidation, Judge Thrash, Northern District of Georgia, ruled that reverse payment settlements between Solvay Pharmaceuticals and generic drug makers involving the testosterone supplement AndroGel were legal. The Federal Trade Commission and private plaintiffs had alleged that the settlements were anticompetitive because they constituted payments in exchange for keeping generic competition off the [...]
Second Circuit Dismisses Title Insurance Price Fixing Case
February 12, 2010 – 4:32 pm
The Second Circuit has affirmed the dismissal of a putative class action alleging price fixing among title insurers. The plaintiffs alleged that the insurers manipulated the states-rate setting process to include agency commissions in their insurance rates. Relying on the filed rate doctrine, the Second Circuit held that the state regulators were sufficiently active to [...]
Urethane Class Action Suits Can Move Forward
February 8, 2010 – 6:40 pm
In Carpenter Co. et al. v. BASF SE et al.; and Woodbridge Foam Corp. et al. v. BASF SE et al., Kansas District Court Judge John W. Lungstrum has allowed chemical companies that opted out of a class certification in a larger class action to proceed with their own two putative class actions accusing BASF [...]
Court Allows Plaintiffs To Amend Complaint in On-Line DVD Rental Antitrust Suit
February 8, 2010 – 6:23 pm
In Pierson v. Walmart.com USA et al.; and Levy et al. v. Walmart.com USA LLC et al., Northern District of California Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton has agreed to allow Blockbuster Inc. customers who accused Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Netflix Inc. of colluding in the market for online DVD rentals to amend their complaint based on [...]
Court Rejects Attempt to Dismiss Novir Antitrust Suit
February 8, 2010 – 5:51 pm
In Rite Aid Corp. et al. v. Abbott Laboratories; and Safeway Inc. et al. v. Abbott Laboratories, Northern California District Judge Claudia Wilken denied Abbott’s omnibus motion to dismiss plaintiffs’ claims based on John Doe 1 v. Abbott Laboratories, arguing that the drugmaker’s actions did not amount to exclusionary conduct. In John Doe 1, [...]
Urethane MDL Plaintiffs Order to Produce Data
February 2, 2010 – 11:42 am
District of Kansas Magistrate Judge James O’Hara ordered the plaintiffs in the urethane multi-district litigation to produce data about their sales that had been requested by the defendants. The judge agreed with defendants that the information was necessary to allow the defendants to respond to the conspiracy allegations by showing that the plaintiffs own information [...]
Second Circuit Addresses Twombly Standard in Reviving Digital Music Conspiracy Suit
February 2, 2010 – 11:15 am
The Second Circuit reversed a district court’s dismissal of a case alleging that major record companies had conspired to increase the price of digital music distributed on CDs and over the Internet. The trial court had found the allegations of conspiracy insufficient under the Twombly standard. The Second Circuit reversed, explaining that “[t]he present complain [...]
DVD Application Antitrust Suit Dismissed for Lack of Injury
January 14, 2010 – 10:01 am
In RealNetworks Inc. et al. v. DVD Copy Control Association Inc. et al., Northern District of California Judge Marilyn Hall Patel tossed RealNetworks Inc.’s claims that several movie studios ran afoul of U.S. antitrust law by conspiring to block the company’s DVD-copying application in favor of their own product. The judge found that RealNetworks lacked [...]