Antitrust Lawyer Blog

On February 4, 2019, the American Institute of Steel Construction, LLC filed antidumping (“AD”) and countervailing (“CVD”) petitions with the U.S. Department of Commerce (“DOC”) and the U.S. International Trade Commission (“ITC”). Under U.S. law, a domestic industry can petition the government to initiate an AD investigation into the pricing of an imported product to…

Senate Democrats Aim at Strengthening Antitrust Enforcement On Friday, February 1, Senator Amy Klobuchar re-introduced two bills aimed at strengthening antitrust enforcement. The co-sponsors include Senators Ed Markey (Dem-Massachusetts), Richard Blumenthal (Dem-Connecticut), Dick Durbin (Dem-Illinois) and Corey Booker (Dem-New Jersey). The Consolidation Prevention and Competition Promotion Act of 2019 would, among many other things, include…

On January 11, 2019, Congressman Peter Welch and Francis Rooney, members of Congress, wrote a letter to the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”), urging the Commission to investigate Bristol-Myers Squibb’s (“BMS”) acquisition of Celgene. The letter asks the FTC to examine how the transaction may harm competition with respect to horizontal overlaps and even complementary drugs. …

The government shutdown is likely to delay FTC merger reviews, but the Department of Justice’s (“DOJ”) Second Request investigations will likely proceed as they normally do albeit with less staff.  Although the FTC’s Premerger Notification Office (PNO) and the DOJ’s Premerger Office remain open during regular hours to receive HSR filings, the FTC PNO will…

On a day, that President Trump’s Department of Justice approved CVS’ acquisition of Aetna, allowing the vertical integration of a pharmacy benefit manager with a health insurer, he signed two bills into law intended to lower patients’ prescription costs: the Know Your Lowest Prices Act and the Patient Right (S. 2553) to Know Drug Prices…

Last month’s meeting between Attorney General Jeff Sessions and several state attorneys generals reminds us that sound antitrust enforcement is not just a federal affair.  Indeed, many of the seminal antitrust cases including cases creating key principles of monopolization and merger law were brought by state attorneys generals.  State attorneys generals have used the power…

On September 5, 2018, Judge Trevor N. McFadden of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia granted the Federal Trade Commission’s request for a preliminary injunction preventing Tronox Ltd. (“Tronox”) from completing its proposed $2.4 billion acquisition of National Titanium Dioxide Company Ltd. (“Cristal”) until after a final ruling in the FTC’s…

Changes in the economy, technology, international business, and data collection have all converged to make the FTC rethink its enforcement priorities going forward. In the spirit of the 1995 Pitofsky Hearings, the FTC on September 13, 2018 kicked off the first day of hearings on Competition and Consumer Protection in the 21st Century at Georgetown…

On Friday, September 14th, a Congressional briefing was held regarding the renegotiation of NAFTA and how certain changes under discussion could end up undermining the President’s Blueprint to lower drug prices in the United States by extending pharma monopolies.  One of the provisions under discussion would increase brand-name drug exclusivity.  Imposing additional brand-name drug exclusivity…

On August 10, 2018, the Eastern District of Pennsylvania denied J&J’s motion to dismiss Pfizer’s antitrust action involving infliximab products. Background on Pfizer/J&J In September 2017, Pfizer filed an antitrust lawsuit under Sections 1 and 2 of Sherman Act alleging J&J engaged in exclusionary anticompetitive practices to keep Pfizer out of the market for infliximab…