Welcome to The Contingency‘s Commercial Roundup for February 21. We have a ton of cases to catch up on, so let’s get right to it.
Antitrust
Ordinary people catch a break (on airfares)
On January 17, 2024, a judicial appointee of a President whose administration sharply curtailed antitrust enforcement* blocked a $3.8 billion attempt by JetBlue to merge its way into making the Big Four U.S. airlines (American, Delta, United, and Southwest) into the Big Five (with JetBlue as…
Commercial Roundup – January 10, 2024
Welcome to the first Commercial Roundup in 2024–and Happy New Year.
Commercial Roundup – December 13, 2023
Welcome to Commercial Roundup!
This issue notes an Epic antitrust win against Google, comments by yours truly on the likelihood of an Antitrust Division challenge to a $1.8 billion merger between Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian, Susman Godfrey’s National Boutique of the Year award, and tips on themes for your next jury trial. And, oh…
“You can’t equate a benefit to some consumers to a pro-competitive effect.”
U.S. Circuit Judge Jennifer Sung made the comment December 6 during oral argument in the Federal Trade Commission’s ongoing effort to block Microsoft’s $69 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard, the biggest U.S. maker of video games. (Hat tip to Josh Sisco at Politico Pro.) The FTC claimed that the merger threatened to substantially reduce competition…
Alaska-Hawaiian Merger Might Crash into the 2023 Draft Merger Guidelines
The $1.9 billion deal Alaska Airlines signed with Hawaiian Airlines on December 3 would enable the competitors to collaborate on the 12 routes they both fly between the Aloha State and cities on the U.S. West Coast–a small part of their overall networks. Does that mean the Antitrust Division will challenge the deal?
Probably.
I…
Commercial Roundup – November 15, 2023
Welcome to the November 15, 2023 edition of Commercial Roundup. It will catch you up on the latest appellate decisions by federal appellate courts and the highest courts in Delaware, New York, and Texas on antitrust, arbitration, class actions, intellectual property, securities, and other important issues in complex business and commercial disputes.
- Expert witness
What $26.3 Billion Bought Google, and the Cost of Secrecy
Last Friday, October 27, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta overruled an objection by Google’s trial counsel to a question about how much the online search and ad giant pays Apple and other browser providers for making Google’s search engine the default. The lawyer claimed that making the dollar amount public would hurt Google’s negotiating position…
Commercial Roundup – September 15, 2023
Here you go–Commercial Roundup for the couple of weeks ending September 14, 2023
Commercial Roundup – August 23, 2023
This late-summer edition of Commercial Roundup features a notable ruling on personal jurisdiction, a pair of False Claims Act decisions, a couple of opinions tossing class certification orders, a 2-1 split in a securities fraud case (the dissent has the better end of it), a rare victory for plaintiffs in an action for unlawful maintenance…