BIG ANTITRUST TRIAL: NEWYORK v. DEUTSCHE TELEKOM AG (S.D.N.Y.)

By Laura Wilkinson¹

In the New York v. Deutsche Telekom AG case, California and other states challenged the merger of Sprint and T-Mobile, the third and fourth largest wireless networks in the United States. They did so even after the United States Department of Justice approved the merger on the condition that Sprint sell some of its assets to DISH Network. Just before trial, the trial court ordered that it would not hear opening statements. On this panel, California’s lead counsel and T-Mobile’s lead counsel give abbreviated versions of the opening statements that were prepared, as well as discuss the trial.

PANELISTS

Paula Blizzard is currently a Supervising Deputy General Counsel of the California Attorney General’s Office in the Antitrust Section, where she was California’s lead counsel in New York v. Deutsche Telekom AG. She recently spent two years at the Federal Communication Commission as Deputy Bureau Chief of the Enforcement Bureau, bringing enforcement actions against telecom carriers as well as working on Net Neutrality. From 2000 to 2004, she was at the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division, working on US v. Microsoft and US v. Oracle (Peoplesoft merger). As a partner at Keker, Van Nest & Peters from 2004-2014, she tried all manner of cases, including many patent and antitrust cases. Notable antitrust matters included pharmaceutical pay-for-delay FTC investigations, In Re Tricor Antitrust Litigation, In Re TFT-LCD (Flat Panel) Antitrust Litigation, In re High-Tech Employee Antitrust Litigation, San Jose v. MLB, In re Auto Parts Antitrust Litigation, and NY v. Intel.