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Robert Langer

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Bob is recognized as one of the country’s foremost authorities on antitrust, consumer protection, and trade regulation law. He possesses unparalleled experience in counseling, litigation, and regulatory investigations in the field.

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While all nine statements in the Statements of Antitrust Enforcement Policy in Health Care were re-issued by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Aug. 28, only Statement 8 on physician network joint ventures and Statement 9 on multiprovider networks were actually revised.

The revisions to Statements 8 and 9 am intended to give health care providers greater flexibility in…

Read More New Guidelines Try to Reverse Perceived “Chilling Effect’ on Network Development

The communications industry is experiencing an unprecedented wave of mergers and acquisitions. Merging entities and their counsel are, of course, resigned to the fact that federal regulatory and antitrust enforcement agencies, as well as state public service commissions, must be consulted before most are finalized. It can, however, be unsettling, when the same merger that is being scrutinized by the “feds” also draws the attention…

Read More Coordinated State Antitrust Enforcement: Federalism in the ’90s

BACKGROUND DISCUSSION

The Antitrust Guidelines for Intellectual Property (hereinafter “IP”) Licensing (hereinafter “the Guidelines”), issued jointly by the Justice Department and the FTC (hereinafter collectively referred to as “the Agencies”) on April 6, 1995, will undoubtedly have a significant impact on the drafting, negotiation, and subsequent scrutiny, by the government and private citizens, of domestic licensing arrangements, as well as multinational licenses having an impact…

Read More The Impact of the New Antitrust Guidelines on Licensing

During the past twenty years, most-favored-nation (MFN) clauses have proliferated in contracts between third-party payers and health care providers throughout the country. These clauses, in their various forms, require the provider of health care services to guarantee to the third-party payer that the provider will charge to that payer the provider’s very lowest prices for any services rendered.2 While at first blush, such price…

Read More Enforcement by Antitrust Division Suggests New Attitude Toward Most-Favored National Clauses