Neal Gerber Eisenberg’s antitrust practice provides pragmatic solutions to mitigate risks posed by antitrust laws in a changing marketplace and regulatory environment. Our attorneys help clients successfully compete and advance their businesses while avoiding regulatory action or litigation that can adversely affect the bottom line.
Specifically, our attorneys guide companies in daily business decisions involving pricing, sales and distribution. We help clients obtain regulatory clearance in connection with mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures. If our clients find themselves facing a lawsuit by regulators or competitors, they can rest assured that our prominent litigation team will mount an aggressive defense.
Our antitrust litigators have a strong record of securing favorable outcomes at trial for cases involving claims of unlawful monopoly, price-fixing, group boycott and other anticompetitive conduct.
National in scope, our antitrust group has represented clients in a variety of tightly regulated industries. We have achieved particularly noteworthy success for clients in the financial, technology, health care and non-for-profit fields.
Recent Representative Matters:
- Defeated a multi-claim lawsuit brought by Fair Isaac (FICO) against the three national credit reporting agencies, Trans Union, Experian and Equifax, asserting that the credit reporting agencies violated the antitrust laws by forming a joint venture, VantageScore LLC, to develop a credit score to compete with FICO’s dominant score. FICO also made claims of misappropriation of trade secrets, breach of contract, false advertising and trademark infringement. The only claims that survived our motions for summary judgment were the trademark infringement and unfair competition claims. At trial, the jury rejected all of FICO’s claims and also found that it had committed fraud on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in obtaining the trademark, which was the subject of the litigation. The jury verdict and the summary judgment decision was affirmed by the Eighth Circuit.
- Successfully defended the third-largest producer in North America of oriented strand board (an engineered wood product) against a nationwide antitrust class action seeking $4.5 billion in damages. The plaintiffs alleged that our client, along with the other eight largest North American producers of oriented strand board, conspired to fix prices and reduce output of oriented strand board. On the eve of trial, on the “courthouse steps,” the plaintiffs settled for a fraction of what was sought from our client. Indeed, while the plaintiffs obtained more than $120 million in settlements from the eight other defendants, our client paid well less than 1 percent of the plaintiff’s collective settlement.
- Defeated companion cases brought on behalf of a class of resellers of credit reports and their trade association against TransUnion and the other national credit reporting agencies. The plaintiffs alleged that the credit reporting agencies conspired to eliminate credit report resellers from the market. They alleged violations of the Sherman Act, Robinson-Patman Act and California Antitrust Act. The court dismissed the monopolization and attempt to monopolize claims for failure to state a cause of action and granted the defendants summary judgment on many of the remaining claims, including the claim for price discrimination. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed all of the district court’s rulings.
- Following the highly publicized dispute between Ticketmaster and the rock band Pearl Jam, a number of consumer class actions were filed around the country alleging violations of the antitrust laws relating to the manner in which Ticketmaster established its fees. We represented Ticketmaster in each of these actions, which were ultimately consolidated by the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation. The district court dismissed the cases on standing grounds holding that consumers were indirect purchasers, not parties to the contracts for the sale of tickets entered into between Ticketmaster and the hosting venues or the performing artists. The Eighth Circuit affirmed and the United States Supreme Court declined to hear the plaintiffs’ appeal.
- Obtained dismissal with prejudice for a health maintenance organization in a putative class action alleging antitrust and RICO claims.