Practices

Antitrust Litigation and Enforcement

Why Cooley

Cooley’s antitrust litigation & enforcement practice is led by seasoned trial lawyers who are skilled at successfully navigating clients through complex civil and criminal cases – including class actions – and government investigations. Our team is strategically spread across key antitrust enforcement centers in Washington, DC, New York, San Francisco, Brussels and London, enabling us to quickly support clients in litigation and enforcement matters. We leverage agency relationships and anticipate ever-evolving antitrust litigation and enforcement risks, helping clients stay ahead of the curve, protect their businesses and achieve their goals.

Our team has extensive experience:

  • Litigating cases involving alleged civil and criminal violations of federal and state antitrust statutes, including complex commercial litigation and class actions
  • Representing clients in civil litigation for damages and injunctive relief under the US Sherman, Clayton and Robinson-Patman Acts, dozens of state antitrust and unfair competition laws, and European antitrust laws
  • Defending against agency investigations brought by the Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission, the European Commission, and the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), as well as state attorneys general investigations and follow-on litigation, including those that center on deceptive and unfair advertising, marketing practices, privacy, data security, and financial practices
  • Litigating claims arising from mergers & acquisitions, manufacturer-distributor relations, and enforcement of licensing and similar agreements
  • Handling antitrust disputes involving intellectual property (patents, copyrights and trade secrets) and privacy rights
  • Representing individual executives and entire corporate entities in criminal investigations and trials

The team includes five fellows of the American College of Trial Lawyers, a former acting associate attorney general for the DOJ who was responsible for overseeing the Antitrust Division, a former Antitrust Division deputy director of operations, two former assistant directors of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition, and a former assistant director of the UK CMA, as well as numerous former DOJ and FTC staff attorneys and assistant US attorneys.

Cooley’s antitrust & competition team is part of our CooleyREG offering, through which we combine an understanding of the impact of disruptive advancements – and the regulatory issues that impose risk and slow progress – to help our clients navigate an increasingly complex regulatory landscape.

Representative antitrust litigation & enforcement matters

  • Successfully defended Horizon Therapeutics against a US Federal Trade Commission and six US states’ attempt to block its $27.8 billion acquisition by Amgen
  • Secured a summary judgment victory for the National Association of Realtors in a high-stakes antitrust case brought against NAR and Zillow, resulting in NAR’s removal as a party in the suit
  • Represented Condor, a German leisure airline, in its victory against the approval of Lufthansa’s 2020 state bailout – this victory in overturning the European Commission’s decision was the first successful challenge to a COVID state aid program
  • Secured a victory for a search engine on a motion to dismiss in antitrust litigation in an action alleging the search engine’s practices violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act
  • Representing a university in price-fixing claims brought against 17 universities under Section 1 of the Sherman Act alleging they entered into a conspiracy related to financial aid
  • Representing a college sports conference in a class action alleging that college sports conferences conspired to limit student athletes’ compensation in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act
  • Representing an online seller in an action brought by a purported competing seller alleging our client entered a conspiracy with other sellers to set predatory pricing in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act
  • Representing a TV broadcasting company in a putative class action alleging per se price fixing and unlawful information exchange in the sale of broadcast television advertising
  • Represented Uber in seven consolidated cases brought by more than 800 taxi medallion owners in the Boston area – plus a parallel class action brought by taxi drivers – and defeated claims for predatory pricing and won a bench trial, where the court found for Uber on every cause of action
  • Obtained dismissal (affirmed by the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit) in a price-fixing class action brought by travel agents claiming that our client, Airline Tariff Publishing Co. – along with Delta Airlines, United Airlines and American Airlines – colluded to fix fares on multicity flights
  • Represented a chipmaker in civil investigation of no-poach agreements in the technology sector, successfully arguing to the DOJ’s Antitrust Division to close the investigation without taking action
  • Obtained dismissal for a pharmaceutical company in a suit alleging that the company’s refusal to aid a purported competitor violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act
  • Represented a data company in a criminal grand jury investigation conducted by the DOJ’s Antirust Division in San Francisco regarding no-poach agreements, and obtained closure of the investigation with no action taken by the DOJ