Antitrust Lawyer Blog

On May 2, FTC Commissioner Jon Leibowitz testified on behalf of the FTC before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection of the Committee on Energy and Commerce regarding anticompetitive patent settlements in the U.S. pharmaceutical industry. Leibowitz alleged that recent court cases have made it more difficult to bring antitrust cases…

On May 2, the DOJ filed an amended complaint in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., naming Rinker Group Limited as a defendant in the DOJ antitrust lawsuit against Cemex S.A.B. de C.V because the Rinker Board of Directors approved Cemex’s cash tender offer for Rinker.Cemex and Rinker were required to preserve the assets to…

On April 27, the FTC settled charges against two companies for unfair and deceptive rebate practices. The FTC’s complaint against Soyo, Inc., a Nevada corporation, alleges that most of Soyo’s rebates were delivered late – in some cases, consumers had to wait a year or longer for their checks to arrive. The FTC’s complaint against…

On April 24, the FTC mailed out an additional 1,500 claim forms for reimbursement to consumers who may have been victims of identity theft due to alleged security lapses at data broker ChoicePoint, Inc. In December, 2006, the FTC mailed claim forms to 1,400 consumers.In 2005, ChoicePoint, which compiles and sells personal information, announced that…

On April 18, the DOJ reached a settlement with Chicago-based Amsted Industries Incorporated in order to remedy harm to competition arising from its December 2005 acquisition of FM Industries (“FMI”). Before the acquisition could be approved Amstead had to divest certain assets. FMI formerly was a wholly owned subsidiary of Progress Rail Services Holding Corporation.…

On April 17, Thomas O. Barnett, Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, announced that Deborah A. Garza will serve as the Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Regulatory Matters. Ms. Garza will oversee transportation, energy, agriculture, telecommunications and other regulatory matters for the Division. Most recently, Ms. Garza chaired the Antitrust Modernization…

On April 17, the DOJ and the FTC issued a joint report, “Antitrust Enforcement and Intellectual Property Rights: Promoting Innovation and Competition,” to inform consumers, businesses, and intellectual property rights holders about the agencies’ competition views with respect to a wide range of activities involving intellectual property.The report discusses issues including: refusals to license patents,…

On April 16, the FTC requested Actavis Group’s (“Actavis”) and Abrika Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (“Abrika”) divest all rights and assets needed to make and market generic isradipine capsules to Cobalt Laboratories, Inc. (“Cobalt”) within 10 days of the proposed acquisition. The FTC challenged the terms of the acquisition alleging that the transaction would create a monopoly…

On April 13, the FTC filed for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction in the U.S. District Court of Western Pennsylvania, to stop Equitable Resources, Inc.’s (“Equitable”) proposed acquisition of The Peoples Natural Gas Company (“Dominion Peoples”), a subsidiary of Dominion Resources, Inc. The FTC alleged that the acquisition would lead to higher prices…

On April 13, the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico issued a temporary restraining order (“TRO”) to prevent Western Refining, Inc. from closing on its proposed $1.4 billion acquisition of Giant Industries, Inc., pending the completion of a preliminary injunction hearing.On April 10, 2007, the FTC approved a complaint challenging the acquisition…