Antitrust Law

New FTC Chief Opens Formal Antitrust Probe into Intel Pricing

Computer chip maker Intel Corp. is facing a formal antitrust investigation of anti-competitive pricing by the Federal Trade Commission. The company issued a statement saying it received an FTC subpoena on Wednesday, but its practices “are well within U.S. law,” the New York Times reports. Government officials and lawyers involved…

Jun 6, 2008 5:08 PM CDT

Tip Leads to Price-Fixing Probe of Two UK Law-Firm Lenders

Two law firm lenders in the United Kingdom are under investigation for possible price fixing. Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland are being investigated in connection with their professional services loans, Legal Week reports. The institutions are the U.K.’s two largest lenders to law and accounting firms. The Office of…

Jun 3, 2008 3:25 PM CDT

Credit Card Cos. Can Be Sued for Forcing Arbitration, 2nd Circuit Says

Updated: A class action by credit card holders over mandatory arbitration provisions imposed by credit card issuers can proceed to trial, a federal appeals court has ruled. The New York City-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision today overturns a district court ruling that the cardholders did not have…

Apr 25, 2008 4:15 PM CDT

Drug Companies Beware: FTC Commissioner Kovacic Gets Promoted

William Kovacic, a commissioner on the Federal Trade Commission, has been named chairman of the agency. He will replace Deborah Platt Majoras, who is leaving to join the legal department at Procter & Gamble. Kovacic is former general counsel of the agency, the Associated Press reports. He also taught at…

Mar 27, 2008 1:33 PM CDT

Supreme Court Declines Microsoft Antitrust Appeal

The U.S. Supreme court has turned down an appeal by Microsoft Corp. that seeks to halt a multibillion-dollar lawsuit contending it “deliberately targeted and destroyed” a competitor’s word-processing program to protect its Windows operating system monopoly. Novell Inc. claims Microsoft targeted its WordPerfect program and other office productivity applications because…

Mar 17, 2008 4:24 PM CDT

More FTC Officials Jump to New Jobs

Two more staffers at the Federal Trade Commission are planning to leap to new jobs, according to The Deal. Deputy general counsel John Graubert has confirmed that he will become a partner at Covington & Burling, according to the publication. He will join the firm’s antitrust and consumer law practice…

Mar 4, 2008 3:15 PM CST

FTC Chair to Jump to Procter & Gamble

Antritrust sources are telling The Deal that Deborah Platt Majoras, chairwoman of the Federal Trade Commission, will join the legal department of Procter & Gamble. Majoras is expected to become deputy general counsel and will be on “an inside track” to become the company’s chief legal officer in a couple…

Feb 28, 2008 12:09 PM CST

EU Slams Microsoft: Record $1.35B Fine

Updated: An executive arm of the European Union has fined Microsoft Corp. a record $1.35 billion for failing to cooperate with a 2004 antitrust decision. It required the company to provide information that would have allowed rival developers of work group software to interface their wares with Windows-based computer networks.…

Feb 27, 2008 5:08 PM CST

Suit Claims Title Insurers Paid Kickbacks; Trade Group Cites Lawyer, Broker Pressure

A lawsuit filed against four title insurance companies claims they colluded and paid illegal kickbacks to agents and brokers without disclosing the improper costs in state rate requests. But a spokesman for the industry says the scrutiny should instead be on brokers and lawyers who pressure the insurers for kickbacks.…

Feb 12, 2008 1:06 PM CST

Few Degrees of Separation Among Antitrust Attys in Microsoft’s Yahoo Bid

A bevy of M&A lawyers will be at work on Microsoft’s proposed deal to buy Yahoo, but it’s the antitrust lawyers who will have a key role, Legal Times reports. Charles “Rick” Rule—the antitrust chairman at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft—will be trying to persuade federal and European regulators as well…

Feb 11, 2008 5:54 PM CST

Candy Competition Sours Company on Now-Former Counsel

Nestle reportedly has axed its lead antitrust counsel in Europe after focusing during a review of its legal staffing there on the fact that Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer also represented the competing Mars company. Perhaps best-known on supermarket shelves for its M&M’S candies, Mars is a competitor of Nestle. The two…

Feb 4, 2008 7:10 PM CST

Microsoft & Boies: Let Bygones Be Bygones

David Boies, the Justice Department’s lead trial lawyer in its successful antitrust case against Microsoft, was among the guests at a party last week thrown by the software company and the Atlantic magazine. The New York Times noted Boies was on the guest list at the dinner in New York’s…

Feb 4, 2008 12:10 PM CST

Ex-Cravath Lawyer Dies, Father of ‘Big-Case Litigation’

Thomas Barr, a former lawyer at Cravath, Swaine & Moore who represented IBM in its 13-year antitrust battle, died yesterday at his California home. He was 77. Lawyer David Boies, who also worked on the IBM case, told the New York Times that Barr “was really the father of modern…

Jan 30, 2008 3:13 PM CST

Baker Forms New Practice Group, Cites International Antitrust Concerns

Baker & McKenzie has formed an antitrust practice group in its Tokyo office in advance of a likely broadening of Japanese antitrust rules. The firm’s Tokyo managing partner, Jeremy Pitts, said the new group was created in response to the likely rule changes and the need to apply antitrust rules…

Jan 24, 2008 1:29 PM CST

Possible Boies Associate Bonus: $1 Million

A big litigation win for Boies, Schiller & Flexner could translate to big bonuses for some of the associates who worked on the case. Those who opted to wait for a percentage of the payoff in the case when it was resolved could get $1 million each, reports American Lawyer…

Jan 11, 2008 10:24 PM CST