Antitrust in the News

A petition for review is before the Supreme Court filed by three California real estate investors who were convicted after trial under Section 1 of the Sherman Act for bid rigging at real estate foreclosure auctions. The defendants preserved their objection that the application of the per se rule was unconstitutional because it took an element of the offense [was the agreement in restraint of trade?] away from the jury once the court decided the per se rule applied. Read more

On July 5, 2019, Judge Thomas Hardiman, writing for a unanimous three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (the “Panel”), affirmed the District Court of the Virgin Islands’ verdict dismissing all claims in Spartan Concrete Products, LLC v. Argos USVI, Corp., 929 F.3d 107 (3d Cir. 2019). The case involved a dispute over the sale of ready-made concrete in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Id. at 109. Read more

The case is about telescopes and the antitrust law. The Court’s earlier opinion denying defendants’ Motion to Dismiss was covered in a previous e-brief (here). In the above-captioned Order the Court ruled on a myriad of summary judgment motions filed by the plaintiff, Optronic Technologies (“Orion”), and the defendants, Ningbo Sunny Electronic Co. Ltd. and Sunny Optics, Inc. (“Sunny”). Read more

The California Consumers Privacy Act (CCPA) represents a quantum leap in US privacy, and the core of that change is the expansive concept of personal information. Read more

With the widespread use of social media among all generations, vast amounts of publicly available data exist that automated bots can scrape information from and provide to other companies Read more

On September 10, 2019 the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed the grant of summary judgment to counter-defendant Intellectual Ventures by district courts in Maryland and Virginia. Read more

Bob Connolly Law Office Of Robert Connolly Judge Beth Labson Freeman recently denied defendants’ motion for summary judgment in an indirect purchaser’s complaint alleging a price-fixing conspiracy among the major suppliers of titanium dioxide. Home Depot, U.S.A., Inc. v. E.I. DuPont De Nemours & Company, et al., Case No. 16-cv-04865-BLF; 2019 WL 3804667 (N.D. Cal. 8/13/2019) .  In a similar suit brought by the direct purchasers of titanium oxide, the District Court for the District of Maryland denied the defendants’… Read more

Harrison (Buzz) Frahn IV, John Goheen, Geoff Schmelkin Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP On July 25, 2019, U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph C. Spero of the Northern District of California granted a motion to dismiss the antitrust suit brought by the City of Oakland (“Oakland”) against the Oakland Raiders (the “Raiders”), the National Football League (“NFL”), and all thirty-one other NFL teams over the Raiders’ planned relocation to Las Vegas.  City of Oakland v. Oakland Raiders, et al., No. 18-cv-07444-JCS, 2019… Read more

In re: National Football League's “Sunday Ticket” Antitrust Litig., — F.3d —-, No. 17-56119, 2019 WL 3788253 (9th Cir. Aug. 16, 2019) [Sunday Ticket] Lesley E. Weaver, Anne K. Davis, and Joshua S. Samra Bleichmar Fonti & Auld LLP SUMMARY Sunday Ticket, a putative antitrust class action by commercial and residential DirecTV subscribers (hereinafter, the “Plaintiffs”) on appeal to the Ninth Circuit from the Central District of California’s dismissal, alleges that the out-of-market game telecasting arrangements between the National Football… Read more

While the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) has an effective date of January 1, 2020, there are several bills to amend the law currently pending in the California Legislature that could be signed into law by October. In July, the California Senate Judiciary Committee voted on several bills that would amend the CCPA, and below is a table summarizing the status of the key amendments. The bills that passed will be on the Senate floor for a vote when the Senate reconvenes on August 12. The Senate will have until September 13 to pass the bills. Read more