You should also be aware that the U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) historically have been active in the health care industry, with many prosecutions of physicians and dentists for antitrust...more
A three-judge panel from the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit overturned an executive’s bid-rigging antitrust conviction, holding that the district court erred in applying the per se standard to the executive’s...more
In Deslandes v. McDonald’s USA LLC, issued August 25, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit overturned the dismissal of antitrust claims that challenged no-poach clauses in franchise agreements....more
On 25 February the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) submitted a statement of interest in a Nevada State court lawsuit filed by a group of anesthesiologists alleging that non-compete provisions in their employment agreements...more
In an important decision on August 19, 2021, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Aya Healthcare Services, Inc. v. AMN Healthcare, Inc. affirmed the grant of summary judgment in favor of AMN, finding that the...more
Earlier this month, the Second Circuit overturned a decision by the Federal Trade Commission (the “FTC”) holding 1-800-Contacts violated antitrust law by entering into trademark settlement and related agreements that...more
The Second Circuit’s recent decision in 1-800 Contacts, Inc. v. FTC signals that trademark holders can aggressively enforce their rights and pursue settlements with competitors that are not “inherently suspect” under the...more
On June 7, 2021, as part of the US Department of Justice’s (DOJ) continuing commitment to prosecuting cases where the government is a victim, a government contractor pleaded guilty to one count of bid-rigging and one count of...more
The most powerful tool capable of invalidating competitive restraints under California law is Business and Professions Code section 16600. That statute states that “[e]very contract by which anyone is restrained from...more
In its first resale price maintenance ("RPM") ruling since the passage of its Anti-Monopoly Law, China's highest court held that Chinese antitrust enforcement agencies do not have to prove that RPM has an anticompetitive...more
In the last week of June 2019 a copy of a groundbreaking court ruling emerged on social media in China – the order by the Supreme People's Court (SPC) in the Yutai case. ...more
In a ruling issued on December 18, 2018 but not published until June 24, 2019, China’s Supreme People’s Court (SPC) ruled in favor of the Hainan Provincial Price Bureau in an administrative proceeding regarding a vertical...more
In The Medical Center at Elizabeth Place, LLC v. Atrium Health System, Case No. 17-3863 (6th Cir. Apr. 25, 2019), the Sixth Circuit held that activity in connection with a joint venture that is plausibly procompetitive is not...more
• The Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have indicated in the past that they believe that certain agreements between employers not to poach each other’s employees are...more
On 31 October the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah's decision in United States v. Kemp & Associates, et al. that dismissed the government's indictment as time...more
The Background: Over the first decade of China's Antimonopoly Law ("AML"), there has been a divergence between the approaches adopted by the Chinese antimonopoly enforcement agencies ("AMEAs") and the Chinese courts toward...more
On August 28, a Utah federal judge held in United States v. Kemp & Associates, et al. that he will apply the rule of reason standard in a criminal prosecution against an heir-locator company for allegedly colluding with its...more
Yesterday, the Ninth Circuit ruled in the long awaited O’Bannon v. NCAA case, which challenged NCAA rules that bar student-athletes from “being paid for the use of their names, images, and likenesses” (NILs) – part of the...more
On August 13, 2015, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued formal guidance on Section 5 enforcement consisting of a general statement of principles1 to guide application of its authority to challenge “unfair methods...more