Antitrust and Trade Regulation

Antitrust issues arise in every industry, in many different situations – such as when businesses decide pricing, consider mergers or attend trade association meetings.  When our clients come to us with an antitrust concern, they want rapid, practical and balanced advice.  Our antitrust lawyers respond with prompt, reasoned and real solutions that our clients can put into action. 

We counsel, among others:

• Trade associations about compliance, benchmarking and standardization 
• Online libraries about product pricing
• Manufacturers about contract provisions
• Retailers about distribution issues, including dealer terminations, advertising restrictions, and pricing and discount programs
• Medical providers about joint ventures and other cooperative alliances
• International companies about structuring acquisitions and ancillary restraints
• An auto manufacturer about purchasing practices
• Franchisors about pricing policies for franchisees
• Airlines on joint buying groups

Our lawyers have a broad spectrum of experience combined with good business judgment that can prevent a concern from becoming a crisis.  Our antitrust counselors also are antitrust litigators who have first-hand experience with the real-life consequences of antitrust challenges. 

Our clients want to plan ahead, anticipate and avoid potential problems.  Our antitrust counselors help to develop cost-effective compliance planning and training programs that are targeted specifically to our clients and their industries.  We work with our clients' business people to determine what antitrust issues may arise and to inform and strategize with our clients on how to avoid or minimize antitrust risks.

Our attorneys have substantial experience in handling mergers and acquisitions and in resolving the concerns of antitrust enforcers about mergers and acquisitions.  Some of the significant matters we have handled recently include:

• We represented a major manufacturer in a post-acquisition investigation concerning its acquisition of several competitors
• We represented a number of clients in Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission investigations of mergers and acquisitions, including a major manufacturer of lawn care products, a manufacturer of high pressure cylinders, and a manufacturer of porcelain enamel frits.
• We represented clients in opposing clearance of transactions in the credit reporting and plastic manufacturing industries.

Our attorneys also regularly counsel clients in the creation of joint ventures in a wide variety of industries, including health care, manufacturing and food services. To learn more about our mergers and acquisitions practice, click here.

Health care has become a focus of antitrust regulatory enforcement efforts and private litigation in recent years.  As health care providers join together in networks, regulators often will scrutinize those alliances to determine their effect on prices and consumer choice. Prescription drug prices and availability also are matters of great concern to regulators and private entities.  At present, no other field is as closely watched for antitrust issues as health care. 

Our lawyers represent a broad spectrum of clients in the health care field, including insurance companies, pharmaceutical manufacturers, hospitals, and other medical providers.  As a result, we have experience in the wide range of areas in which health care antitrust issues may arise.  Our involvement in counseling, government investigations, and litigation in the health care area includes the following examples:

• We represented a major health care insurer in arbitration with a hospital relating to a “most favored nations” clause
• We defended a university-affiliated hospital in litigation with a terminated physician
• We defended a major health insurance company in precedent-setting litigation regarding physician control of health insurance companies
• We successfully represented, at trial and on appeal, a major health insurance company challenging territorial restrictions imposed on it by a national trade association
• We defended a pharmaceutical manufacturer in multidistrict litigation involving alleged price fixing
• We counsel medical groups on forming alliances with other groups and the degree of integration needed to survive antitrust scrutiny
• We counsel hospitals regarding medical staff privileges issues
• We counsel hospitals on use of exclusive contracts for providers

To learn more about our health care practice, click here.