The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently published a blog post warning that the use of algorithms to assist in determining prices may violate federal antitrust laws, regardless of the business or industry. The FTC...more
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently submitted a comment to the U.S. Copyright Office in response to its “Notice of Inquiry” in the Federal Register examining copyright issues related to artificial intelligence (AI)....more
11/28/2023
/ Artificial Intelligence ,
Civil Investigation Demand ,
Competition ,
Compliance ,
Copyright Office ,
Data Collection ,
Deep Fake ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FTC Act ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Notice of Inquiry ,
Software Licenses ,
Training
The listing of many types of patents in the FDA’s Orange Book (Approved Drug Products with Therapeutic Equivalence Evaluations) is fairly straightforward. Patents covering the approved drug product (active pharmaceutical...more
As announced in a September 14, 2023, press release, the FTC has issued a policy statement “warning pharmaceutical companies that make and sell brand-name drugs that they could face legal action if they improperly list...more
Health care companies are increasingly using artificial intelligence (AI) to create innovations, set prices, and compete with rivals. At the same time, federal and state antitrust enforcers are finding new ways to apply...more
4/26/2023
/ Antitrust Provisions ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
Collusion ,
Competition ,
Compliance ,
Enforcement ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Healthcare ,
Horizontal Mergers ,
Medical Devices ,
Mergers ,
Technology Sector
Manufacturing companies should actively prepare for heightened antitrust scrutiny of their business practices in 2023, including practices that have not traditionally garnered the focus of the federal antitrust enforcers. ...more
On February 3, 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division (DOJ) announced that it is withdrawing three policy statements the DOJ and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued between 1993 and 2011, related to...more
2/7/2023
/ Antitrust Provisions ,
Competition ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Healthcare ,
Information Sharing ,
Joe Biden ,
Safe Harbors ,
Sherman Act ,
Third-Party Service Provider
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has recently turned its focus to employee noncompete clauses, with the agency announcing a proposed regulation on January 5, 2023 that would implement a near-comprehensive ban across the...more
1/27/2023
/ Biden Administration ,
Employment Contract ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FTC Act ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Non-Disclosure Agreement ,
Non-Solicitation Agreements ,
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Technology Sector
On December 29, 2022, President Biden signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023, an omnibus spending bill that also contained several pieces of key antitrust legislation. In particular, the law included a bill...more
With steep inflation and seemingly constant disruptions in supply chains for all manner of goods, the Biden Administration has turned increasingly to antitrust authorities to tame price increases and stem future bottlenecks....more
8/4/2022
/ Antitrust Violations ,
Biden Administration ,
Compliance ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement ,
Executive Orders ,
FBI ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FTC Act ,
Market Manipulation ,
Price Inflation ,
Request For Information ,
Supply Chain ,
Vertical Mergers
Earlier this month — July 9, 2022 — marked the one-year anniversary of President Biden’s Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy (Executive Order). The Executive Order was notable in its breadth and...more
7/27/2022
/ Beverage Manufacturers ,
Biden Administration ,
Competition ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Food Manufacturers ,
FRAND ,
FTC Act ,
Healthcare ,
Manufacturers ,
Memorandum of Understanding ,
Mergers ,
NIST ,
NLRB ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
ROI ,
USDA ,
USPTO
On June 8, 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice, Antitrust Division (DOJ), the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) withdrew — without replacing — a Trump-era...more
In remarks on September 29, 2021, a senior official from the Department of Justice Antitrust Division (DOJ) outlined the agency’s shift in approach to issues surrounding technology industry standards. The remarks foreshadowed...more
The advent of new technology brings along with it the murkiness of how the American legal system will treat such technology. Before the rise of blockchain for instance, businesses were uncertain how courts would treat...more
10/8/2021
/ Blockchain ,
California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) ,
Confidentiality Policies ,
E-SIGN ,
Force Majeure Clause ,
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) ,
Governance Standards ,
Service Level Agreements ,
Smart Contracts ,
Supply Chain ,
Termination ,
UETA
Last week saw two notable competition-related developments from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The first relates to the FTC’s approval of eight new compulsory process resolutions in high-priority areas. The second...more
9/27/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Civil Investigation Demand ,
Common Ownership ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FTC Endorsement Guidelines ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Monopolization ,
Omnibus Guidance ,
The Clayton Act ,
Vertical Mergers
On Friday, July 9, 2021, President Biden issued a sweeping Executive Order that could have far-reaching implications for businesses across a broad spectrum of industries. The Executive Order takes a government-wide approach...more
7/15/2021
/ Anti-Competitive ,
Antitrust Violations ,
Competition ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FTC Act ,
Healthcare ,
Joe Biden ,
Manufacturers ,
Mergers ,
No-Poaching ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Wage-Fixing
Amid the national coronavirus emergency, the antitrust enforcement agencies remain open for business. However, like the rest of these country, these agencies—the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Trade Commission...more
Recent public statements from Makan Delrahim, Assistant United States Attorney General for the Antitrust Division at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), and Joseph Simons, Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman, indicate...more
On December 7, 2017, an Illinois appellate court held that co-defendants in a case who agree to share information pursuant to their common interest in defeating their litigation opponent do not waive either the...more
On November 7, 2017, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released an advisory opinion confirming that a non-profit hospital in New York may sell discounted prescription drugs to the employees of an affiliated medical practice...more
11/16/2017
/ 501(c)(3) ,
Advisory Opinions ,
Commodities ,
Competition ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Healthcare Facilities ,
Hospitals ,
Non-Profit Hospitals ,
Nonprofits ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Price Discrimination ,
Robinson-Patman Act
On Wednesday, in a lawsuit brought by student-athletes claiming that the value of their scholarships was anti-competitively capped by NCAA rules, the student-athletes sought approval of nearly $45 million in attorneys' fees,...more
In the wake of the decision from the Supreme Court in the United States on Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins, courts are grappling with how to apply the injury requirement for standing under Article III to “no-injury” class actions....more
On August 12, 2016, the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced they are seeking public comments on the first update to the Antitrust Guidelines for the Licensing...more
On August 12, 2016, the Seventh Circuit decided Woodman’s Food Market, Inc. v. Clorox Co., No. 15-3001, and held that Clorox’s refusal to sell bulk-sized packages of certain products to some retailers, like Woodman’s, when it...more
On August 12, 2016, the Seventh Circuit reversed the district court decision allowing Woodman’s Food Market, Inc.’s (Woodman’s) price discrimination lawsuit against The Clorox Company and The Clorox Sales Company (Clorox) to...more