Update August 2010: The Second Circuit has affirmed this decision. In RxUSA Wholesale Inc. v. Alcon Laboratories Inc. et al., Eastern District of New York Judge Denis R. Hurley has dismissed a $2.3 billion antitrust lawsuit accusing 16 pharmaceutical manufacturers and a group of drug distributors of conspiring to keep RxUSA Wholesale Inc., a secondary […]
Author Archives: Steve Semeraro
Drug Wholesalers Claim Dismissed for Lack of Evidence of Market Power or Conspiracy
August 31, 2010 – 12:10 pm
Racetrack Simulcast Boycott Case Survives Motion to Dismiss
August 31, 2010 – 10:53 am
Update August 2010: The court granted summary judgment for the racetrack and broadcaster defendants on the ground that they could not question the no broadcast order. The case is still proceeding against the other defendants. District of Maryland Judge Richard Bennett denied the defendants motion to dismiss in a case filed by a racetrack and […]
Blood Reagent Price-Fixing MDL Moves Forward
August 27, 2010 – 4:03 pm
E.D. PA Judge Jan Dubois denied defendant Immucor Inc. & Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics Inc. motion to dismiss on the ground that the plaintiffs had failed to sufficiently allege an agreement. The judge cited the close timing of the defenants’ price increases for blood reagent; their cancellations of contracts with group purchasers; and […]
NCAA Standard for Lacrosse Stickhead Design Not Anticompetitive
August 27, 2010 – 3:54 pm
The Sixth Circuit has upheld the dismissal on the pleadings of lacrosse stick manufacturer Warrior Sports’s complaint alleging that the NCAA violated Section 1 of the Sherman Act by agreeing with Warrior’s competitors to adopt a new rule that prohibited the use of all of the stick models currently sold by Warrior. After meeting with […]
New Merger Guidelines Released
August 19, 2010 – 3:30 pm
The United States Department of Justice, Antitrust Division, and the Federal Trade Commission have released new merger guidelines explaining how the enforcement agencies review horizontal mergers. The merger guidelines have existed in various forms since 1968. The last major revision was in the mid-1990s. The agencies announced last fall that they were planning to revise the […]
Insurance Conspiracy Case Partially Dismissed
August 19, 2010 – 2:20 pm
The Third Circuit dismissed a major portion of the Insurance Brokers’ Antitrust Litigationon the ground that the complaint fails to adequately allege an a horizontal agreement among insurers. Although the plaintiffs alleged agreements between particular insurers and brokers, the insurers had sufficient incentive to enter those vertical agreements even if the insurers had not agreed […]
New York Court Holds that State May Challenge Home Appraisal Conspiracy
August 19, 2010 – 1:52 pm
A New York state appellate court has held that the state may challenge on antitrust grounds alleged collusion between First America Corp. and Washington Mutual. The defendants had argued that the state challenge was preempted by federal regulation. The court held that the regulation does not extend to collusion relating to appraisals.
California Travel & Tourism Board Dismissed From Rental Car Conspiracy Case
August 19, 2010 – 1:47 pm
The Ninth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of the California Tourism Board from a suit alleging anticompetitive agreements by rental car companies to set ancillary fees. Plaintiffs alleged that after a new law placed an assessment on rental car companies to help fund the tourism board, the state board conspired with the rental car companies to […]
Golf Voucher Case Dismissed on Interstate Commerce Grounds
August 19, 2010 – 1:14 pm
S.D. Miss. Judge Halil Ozeren dismissed a complaint by a hotel associate alleging that golf courses violated the antitrust laws by offering lower voucher prices to a golfers’ association than to the hotels. The court held that the complaint failed to adequately allege an effect on interstate commerce as required by the federal antitrust laws. The […]
Case Accusing Mastiff Breeders of Price Fixing Dismissed
August 19, 2010 – 1:06 pm
District of Ohio Judge George Smith dismissed an antitrust case against the American Mastiff Breeders Council by a former member. The plaintiff alleged that the council violated the antitrust laws by setting capping the price that could be charged for puppies and by excluding the plaintiff from the organization. The court held that the plaintiff […]