Consumer protection and antitrust attorneys seeking to prevent class certifications have three powerful, but underused, defenses upon which they can rely: a completed, a pending, or an anticipated government investigation or lawsuit (collectively, government action). In certain circumstances, these potential defenses could result in denial of a class certification motion, as a court may find that due to the government action, a class action lawsuit
Read More What is Superiority?State Antitrust
So You Think You’re Safe Under the Antitrust Laws? A Word of Advice to Those Who Would Ignore the States
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Antitrust practitioners generally consider themselves well-versed in key antitrust principles, cases, and developments. They freely allude to “Colgate” and “GTE Sylvania” — meaning something other than toothpaste and televisions — in their everyday conversation. To remain at the top of their trade, they make an effort to stay current on the evolution of antitrust doctrines emanating from the U.S. Supreme Court and the application and…
Read More So You Think You’re Safe Under the Antitrust Laws? A Word of Advice to Those Who Would Ignore the StatesABA Newsletter of the Consumer Protection Committee — Serving The Client And The Public: Lessons From A Former State Assistant Attorney General
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From the Newsletter, Page 3.
Having spent twenty-one years in the service of the public, and the last seven years in the private practice of law, I have taken on the task, perhaps quite presumptuously, of moralizing to two constituencies — my current brethren and my former brethren.
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Read More ABA Newsletter of the Consumer Protection Committee — Serving The Client And The Public: Lessons From A Former State Assistant Attorney GeneralState Attorneys General: The Third Prong in the Antitrust Triad
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The role of state attorneys general in the development of competition policy in the U.S. continues to grow and evolve. In an increasing array of venues, state enforcers, often under the aegis of the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) Multistate Antitrust Task Force (NAAG Task Force), have become an essential component in the antitrust risk assessment for business transactions within the US.
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Read More State Attorneys General: The Third Prong in the Antitrust TriadCan the King’s Physician (Also) Do No Wrong?
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- Discrimination against interstate commerce
- Excessive burden on
Should the Antitrust Division, the FTC, and State Attorneys General Formally Allocate the Market for Antitrust Enforcement?
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The Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission, and state attorneys general, as any antitrust aficionado knows, have dramatically improved the level of communication, cooperation, and coordination among themselves in the investigation and prosecution of antitrust violations during the past decade.1 Two important examples of such coordination are the 1998 Protocol for Coordination in Merger Investigations Between the Federal…
Read More Should the Antitrust Division, the FTC, and State Attorneys General Formally Allocate the Market for Antitrust Enforcement?Coordinated State Antitrust Enforcement: Federalism in the ’90s
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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 ’90sEnforcement by Antitrust Division Suggests New Attitude Toward Most-Favored National Clauses
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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