In two companion opinions, Magistrate Judge Louis Guirola, Jr. of the Southern District of Mississippi granted motions to dismiss and greatly limited the scope of the claims asserted against several defendants in "opt out" actions following from the In re OSB Antitrust Litigation in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Bailey Lumber & Supply Co. v. Georgia-Pacific Corp. Cause No. 1:08CV1394 LG-JMR (S.D. Miss, Feb. 25, 2010 and March 19, 2010).
On March 4, 2010, Judge Jeremy Fogel of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California granted summary judgment in favor of eBay in a putative antitrust class action lawsuit brought by online auction sellers in 2007. See In re eBay Seller Antitrust Litigation, No. 07-1882 N.D. Cal., No. C 07-01882 JF (RS) (2008), Order Granting Defendant’s Motion For Summary Judgment And Denying As Moot Plaintiffs’ Motion For Class Certification (Dkt. # 577), available at 2010 WL 760433 (“eBay”). As explained below, the court held that plaintiffs’ allegations fail because plaintiff and its expert failed to proffer any evidence that eBay’s alleged anticompetitive acts caused plaintiffs any injury compensable under the antitrust laws.
Congress has taken preliminary steps to adopt legislation that would restore the rule that minimum resale price agreements between manufacturers and retailers, distributors or wholesalers, violate the Sherman Act without requiring proof of their anticompetitive effects.
The Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice recently demonstrated that the antitrust agencies continue to deal sternly with companies who fail to comply with the premerger reporting and waiting period requirements of the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 (the “HSR Act”). On January 21, 2010, the Division announced a proposed settlement with Smithfield Foods and Premium Standard Farms requiring the companies to pay $900,000 in civil penalties for “gun-jumping” in connection with Smithfield’s May 2007 acquisition of Premium Standard.
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