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HSR Jurisdictional Thresholds Increased in Annual Adjustment
January 26, 2018 | Alert | By Bruce Sokler, Robert Kidwell, Farrah Short
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced on January 26, 2018, increased jurisdictional thresholds for premerger notification filings under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, as amended (the HSR Act). The FTC revises the thresholds annually based on changes in the gross national product.
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FTC and DOJ Issue Proposed Updates to Antitrust Guidelines for Licensing IP
October 14, 2016 | Blog | By Michael Renaud, Robert Kidwell, Andrew DeVoogd, Marguerite McConihe
For the first time in 26 years, the FTC and DOJ (the “Agencies”) have issued proposed updates to the Antitrust Guidelines for the Licensing of Intellectual Property, last revised in 1995.
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Big Summary Judgment Win for Hospital Defending $300M Exclusive Dealing Antitrust Suit
October 5, 2016 | Advisory | By Bruce Sokler, Farrah Short
After fending off a motion for judgment on the pleadings in March 2015, a small hospital in Peoria, Illinois lost on summary judgment in its $300 million antitrust suit alleging illegal exclusive dealing and attempted monopolization against its largest competitor.
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FDA Convenes Two-Day Public Hearing on Human Cell and Tissue Product Regulatory Paradigm
September 15, 2016 | Alert | By Joanne Hawana
As stakeholders and watchers of the expansive field of regenerative medicine likely are aware, earlier this year a study published in the peer-reviewed journal Cell Stem Cell reported on the growth of so-called stem cell clinics operating in the U.S.
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No Resuscitation of Hospital’s Exclusive Dealing Antitrust Suit against Competing Hospitals and Physicians
August 23, 2016 | Alert | By Bruce Sokler, Farrah Short
The Third Circuit reminds, “[i]n antitrust suits, definitions matter.” Last week, in applying that maxim, the court affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of a suit filed by a hospital against a competing hospital and physician group, in which the plaintiff hospital alleged that defendants engaged in an illegal exclusive dealing arrangement by referring patients to a third hospital rather than to the plaintiff hospital.
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Second Circuit: Aluminum End Users Lack Antitrust Standing; Price Manipulation Claims Against Traders and Warehouses Foiled
August 15, 2016 | Alert | By Bruce Sokler, Robert Kidwell, Lydia Turnier
Last week, in In re Aluminum Warehousing Antitrust Litigation, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (“Second Circuit”) rejected a claim by certain downstream end-users of aluminum that their price manipulation antitrust suit should be allowed to proceed.
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Activist Investor to Pay Record Fine for Violating HSR Reporting Requirements
July 14, 2016 | Alert | By Bruce Sokler, Robert Kidwell, Farrah Short
The Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced this week that an activist investment manager has agreed to pay a record $11 million to settle allegations that it violated the requirements of the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 (the “HSR Act” or “Act”) by improperly relying on the “investment-only” exemption to avoid reporting the transaction and observing the appropriate waiting period.
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DOJ and NC File Antitrust Suit Challenging Anti-Steering Restrictions in Payor Contracts
June 10, 2016 | Alert | By Dionne Lomax, Bruce Sokler
A popular weapon used to contain health care expenditures is the creation by payors and employers of tiered provider networks, which by differentiated co-pays attempt to steer insureds to less expensive choices. In connection with such networks, providers will often provide better pricing in order to be placed on more favorable tiers.
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FTC Settles Monopolization Charges Stemming from Contract Exclusivity Terms Used by First-to-Market Medical Polymer Maker
April 28, 2016 | Alert | By Bruce Sokler, Farrah Short
The mere possession of monopoly power does not violate federal antitrust laws. The laws only address the anticompetitive acquisition, maintenance, or abuse of that power.
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Court Denies Class Cert. in NCAA Antitrust Suit
April 4, 2016 | Alert | By Bruce Sokler, Farrah Short
The NCAA scored a victory last week with the denial of class certification in an antitrust suit challenging the association’s former ban on multiyear scholarships (the “One Year Rule”) and its cap on scholarships (the “GIA Cap”). Plaintiff had alleged that those rules constituted a concerted effort by the NCAA and its member schools to thwart competition.
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Sixth Circuit Finds Possibility of Conspiracy Among Hospital Network Members
March 25, 2016 | Alert | By Bruce Sokler, Farrah Short
The Sixth Circuit on Tuesday voted 2 to 1 to reverse a district court’s grant of summary judgment under which a defendant hospital network had been found to be a single entity incapable of conspiring with itself in an anticompetitive manner under Section 1 of the Sherman Act.
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New Class Action Filed Challenging NCAA’S Scholarship Caps and Transfer Rules
March 9, 2016 | Alert | By Bruce Sokler, Farrah Short
In the latest chapter in the litigation wars against college athletics, on March 8, 2016, another antitrust class action was filed against the NCAA in its “home court,” the United States Southern District of Indiana.
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Rodeo Associations Fail to Wrangle Each Other in First Round of Antitrust Class Action: District Court Denies Plaintiffs’ Preliminary Injunction and Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss
February 8, 2016 | Alert | By Bruce Sokler, Farrah Short
An upstart rodeo association, created and owned by professional rodeo cowboys, challenged that its competitor’s bylaws aimed at the new association and its participants constituted agreements that unreasonably restrain trade and monopolize the market in violation of Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act.
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FTC Increases HSR Jurisdictional Thresholds
January 22, 2016 | Alert | By Bruce Sokler, Robert Kidwell, Farrah Short
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced on January 21, 2016 increased jurisdictional thresholds for premerger notification filings under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, as amended (the HSR Act).
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Mylan Agrees to Divest Seven Products, Including Three Pipeline Products, to Clear FTC Hurdle in Its $27 Billion Tender Offer Bid for Perrigo
November 6, 2015 | Alert
The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) yesterday concluded its antitrust review of Mylan N.V.’s (“Mylan”) proposed acquisition of Perrigo Company plc (“Perrigo”) by entering into a proposed consent judgment that would require Mylan to divest seven generic products, including three future pipeline products, to Alvogen Group Inc. (“Alvogen”).
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Recent Developments in Massachusetts Health Policy
October 23, 2015 | Alert | By Julie Cox, Sasha Dudding, Stephen Weiner
Building on the momentum of early October hearings on the state’s growing health care expenditures, the Health Policy Commission (HPC), the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing, Governor Charlie Baker, and others spent the past two weeks crafting new policies for the industry and its consumers.
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FTC Sets Berks County’s Broken Orthopedic Market
October 20, 2015 | Alert | By Bruce Sokler
Keystone Orthopaedic Specialists, LLC (“Keystone”), and Orthopaedic Associates of Reading, Ltd. (“OA”) reached a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission last week that they had violated the antitrust laws through the consolidation of six independent orthopedic practices in Berks County, Pennsylvania into a single practice.
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FTC Answers the Call for Guidance Regarding Antitrust Compliance for State Regulatory Boards Controlled by Market Participants
October 19, 2015 | Alert | By Dionne Lomax
In North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiners v. FTC, 135 S. Ct. 1101 (2015), the Supreme Court held that the North Carolina Board of Dental Examiners (“Board”), a state agency, was not exempt from federal antitrust laws when it prohibited non-dentists from providing teeth whitening services in competition with the state’s licensed dentists.
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FTC Merger Challenge Based on Harm to Potential Competition Rejected by District Court
September 28, 2015 | Alert | By Bruce Sokler, Farrah Short
In what has become rare of late, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) suffered a litigation loss in a merger case with a district court’s denial of a preliminary injunction to block the deal pending administrative litigation. FTC v. Steris Corporation, 1:15-cv-01080 (N.D. Ohio September 24, 2015).
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Kissing Camels Antitrust Suit Against Health System Moves Past Another Hump in the Road
September 3, 2015 | Alert | By Bruce Sokler, Farrah Short
In June, an antitrust suit brought by plaintiff ambulatory surgery centers against a health system, health insurers, and a trade association survived a motion to dismiss. Last week, the ASCs’ case cleared the hump of summary judgment and will now proceed to trial.
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