In the 1990s, Federal Trade Commission (FTC) enforcement actions to block mergers between health care providers were a rare phenomenon successfully obtained. In many instances, state Attorneys General filled the role of watchdog, especially since hospital mergers were relatively small and implicated local markets. Many, like the Pennsylvania Attorney General, were unable to convince the … Continue Reading
Discovery in antitrust cases often involves a search for smoking-gun documents. Those documents can consist of emails proving that competitors conspired to raise prices, removing the difficulties faced by prosecutors or civil plaintiffs in proving actual injury to competition. Such precious nuggets lead inexorably to near-automatic liability for the defendants. But what if the nugget … Continue Reading
A recent decision from Judge Posner in the Seventh Circuit, Motorola Mobility LLC v. AU Optronics, offers the latest insight into the extraterritorial reach of the Sherman Act. In dismissing Motorola’s price-fixing claims of more than $3.5 billion, Judge Posner continued the clarification of the Foreign Trade Antitrust Improvements Act (“FTAIA”), by narrowing the conduct that constitutes … Continue Reading
Antitrust law and economics seem like dark arts to outsiders, an impression that antitrust lawyers are none too eager to dispel. But everyone can appreciate a smoking gun document that seems to brand its author as a hardened violator of the antitrust laws. Consider the memorandum written by a large waste-disposal company about a small … Continue Reading
Posted in Healthcare, Merger Review
