The Fourth Circuit reversed a judgment that awarded nothing — zilch — on a winning $50 million False Claims Act claim for civil penalties.
The panel first ruled that FSA relator Kurt Bunk had "standing" to sue under the statute despite his lack of personal injury. The harm to the federal government (from a scheme
The Tenth Circuit has ruled that Microsoft didn't kill WordPerfect. The market did.
Or at least that, if Microsoft did commit software-icide, it didn't lose money doing it and therefore Did Nothing Wrong. Novell, Inc. v. Microsoft Corp., No. 12-4143 (10th Cir. Sept. 23, 2013).
For other instances of antitrust-icide in the Tenth Circuit
The Second Circuit has upheld rules that aim to ease the process for vendors of video content to complain to the Federal Communications Commission about bias by Comcast, Time Warner, and other cable giants in favor of their own video content. Time Warner Cable Inc. v. Federal Communications Comm'n, No. 11-4138(L) (2d Cir. Sept.
The Seventh Circuit, per Judge Richard Posner, has put the kibosh on an effort to kill a pair of class actions over moldy Kenmore washing machines. Butler v. Sears, Roebuck & Co., No. 11-8029 (7th Cir. Aug. 22, 2013). In doing so, the court gave the back of its hand to those who claim that Comcast Corp.
Blawgletter has lately started scanning news reports about the U.S. Justice Department Antitrust Division's bid to block the minnow-eats-whale merger of U.S. Airways and American Airlines. Wowsers.
Let's start by saying we've found that the biz reporters have a not-very-good grasp of antitrust law. A terrible one in fact. They seem to think that whatever
On Aug. 12, the AAntitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice joined with the attorneys-general of six states and the District of Columbia to file a lawsuit to stop the merger of AMR, which owns American Airlines, into U.S. Airways. You can see the complaint here.
The filing took Blawgletter by surprise. Living in DFW, which
The D.C. Circuit today vacated class certification in an antitrust case on behalf of firms that paid fuel surcharges on top of basic charges to freight railroads. In re Rail Freight Fuel Surcharge Antitrust Litig., No. 12-7085 (D.C. Cir. Aug. 9, 2013). The court cited what it called the "propensity toward false positives"
Did Apple collude with publishers to jack up the price of e-books?
You betcha, U.S. District Judge Denise L. Cote ruled in Manhattan today after a three-week trial.
A damages trial will follow.
Apple pursued a nutty defense, which held that it and the publishers did no wrong
Snappy reclines. The Empire State Building looms in the mid-distance. Bitey consults his notes. He clears his throat.
Bitey: The U.S. Supreme Court's summer break started last week, Snaps, and the time has come for us to look at the . . . uh . . . results of the 2012-13 Term for those commercial cases
Five members of the U.S. Supreme Court must think that class actions do nothing but bad.
They must believe that Rule 23, which allows class actions, rots the moral fiber of our citizens.
That it stands as an insult to our noble but fragile job-creators, who respond by withholding their business genius and in their
