Our antitrust attorneys guide clients through the complex and highly regulated challenges of business competition issues in the U.S. as well as abroad. We represent clients ranging from Fortune 100 companies to new entrants in a broad range of industries, including software, high-tech, building materials, chemicals, energy, publishing, media and entertainment, transportation, telecommunications, sports, agriculture, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and health care.
Our successes include landmark court decisions, obtaining clearance for mergers and acquisitions, and resolving civil and criminal government investigations at the state and federal levels. We regularly advocate for clients before U.S. antitrust enforcement agencies such as the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The diversity and quality of our practice has resulted in national rankings for several years in antitrust litigation and antitrust law by U.S. News – Best Lawyers® "Best Law Firms".
We have been involved in landmark cases such as Berkey v. Kodak and, more recently, large-scale litigation involving agricultural cooperatives and trade associations, the pharmaceutical industry, hospitals and health systems, flat glass, trucks, autos and auto parts, the publishing industry, the New York construction industry, the battery business, and the largest patent assertion entity. We have developed a particular level of knowledge in litigating antitrust claims concerning innovative technologies, and our antitrust and intellectual property teams have successfully collaborated to provide technical knowledge and fierce advocacy in court. In the energy space, we have successfully represented public utilities and energy marketers in antitrust cases in both regulated and deregulated markets, including leading cases concerning independent power, qualifying facilities and state action immunity. In the pharmaceutical sector, we also have experience defending clients in patent-antitrust cases, including against allegations of "sham" patent litigation, fraud on the PTO, improper Orange Book listings, and anticompetitive settlement agreements with generics.
We are equally adept at counseling clients outside the courtroom. A notable strength of our competition practice is our tight integration with our corporate transactional team. We help our corporate clients structure acquisitions and mergers to minimize antitrust exposure and properly allocate risks by looking ahead to identify, prevent, and resolve potential deal-breaking issues. We provide compliance training to reduce criminal antitrust risks, and to ensure the enforceability of patents and other corporate intellectual property assets, especially in connection with setting industry standards. We also coordinate international competition strategy, including merger control regulation, for the firm’s multinational corporate clients.
In addition, we help clients assess the regulatory risks of their contemplated business strategies. Our attorneys offer constructive advice on ongoing competition concerns such as entry into new markets, distribution systems, marketing and sales practices, and involvement with trade associations. Through effective counseling and compliance, we seek to minimize the burdens of litigation and enable our clients to focus on what they do best: leading their businesses and serving customers.
We have established particular experience in advising on and litigating competition issues in emerging technologies, IP disputes, sports, entertainment, and health care.
Our antitrust attorneys regularly provide clients with positive results, whether in litigation, government enforcement, compliance counseling or more risk-attendant areas such as unfair competition. Our attorneys have been named leading antitrust practitioners by the business press and have authored countless chapters, articles, op-eds, and blogs on contentious competition issues. We have worked on many of the seminal cases that have fashioned — and still shape — the development of U.S. antitrust law.
Our attorneys have in-depth knowledge of antitrust law and are seasoned litigators. In addition to trial experience, we represent trade association and corporate clients in appellate litigation matters, as parties and as amici curiae, including before the U.S. Supreme Court, where we have helped shape the development of antitrust jurisprudence.
Our attorneys have defended clients against allegations of criminal antitrust violations, including bid rigging and price fixing in numerous industries, such as chemicals, international construction, airlines, and real estate. We have represented clients in a multitude of high-profile cases with the DOJ Antitrust Division, including matters involving vitamin cartels, dynamic random access memory, metal building insulation, and carbon cathode block. We counsel clients in all aspects of government investigations, from responding to the initial grand jury subpoena and search warrants to conclusion of the matter through trial or the Antitrust Division’s declination of the charges. We also advise clients with respect to the DOJ Antitrust Division’s leniency program and have negotiated several amnesty deals where our clients have avoided all criminal prosecution.
Our approach to every case is to be prepared to take the case to trial. By leveraging our experience, we offer litigation representation that can be more immediate and far more efficient than that which is provided by larger AmLaw 100 firms, with whom we are frequently selected as co-counsel. We predicate our practice on the premise that even complex criminal and civil cases do not necessarily require massive staffing or the correspondingly large cost structure. Through technology, optimization of resources and the specialized services of eMerge, the firm’s electronic discovery affiliate, we are able to contain the rapidly increasing costs of litigation more effectively.
Our attorneys assist organizations of all sizes in developing programs that meet or exceed both external and internal compliance requirements, formalize ethical standards, and promote best practices.
We strive to help clients understand how to achieve their business objectives rather than simply advise against proactive business change due to the risks of potential exposure. Our competition counseling services include advice on the following:
Business growth may depend upon obtaining merger or acquisition approval from competition authorities. Our antitrust attorneys have extensive experience handling Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR)-reportable M&A deals. We have also handled innumerable transactions that have fallen below HSR thresholds but may still be subject to scrutiny.
With our prior government enforcement experience and long-standing relationships with well-known antitrust economists, we are able to quickly assess the risk of enforcement agency review and formulate a strategy for facilitating clearance.
If the DOJ or the FTC launches a formal investigation, we are equally adept at coordinating responses to information demands and at advocating for transactions based on the horizontal merger guidelines. If necessary, our attorneys will negotiate remedies that meet the agency’s competition concerns while maintaining the business value of deals.
As traditional antitrust remedies for private litigants have steadily decreased, plaintiffs are turning more frequently to alternative legal regimes and forums to resolve competition disputes. The most significant of these involve state and federal unfair competition statutes (e.g., Section 5 of the FTC Act) and false advertising and related “false marking” cases under the Lanham Act.
Our firm has extensive experience in these newer arenas. Our antitrust professionals write articles and counsel clients on competition litigation, having participated in scores of state unfair competition law (UCL) class actions, including those initiated under the California Unfair Competition Law. As more and different legal regimes affect our clients’ competitive positioning, we understand that antitrust litigation is just “competition by another name.”
Litigation
Transactional
Articles + Publications
06.13.24
Algorithmic Prices and Industry Data Reporting Under the Antitrust Microscope
Firm News
06.13.24
Troutman Pepper Announces 2024 Legal 500 US Rankings
Articles + Publications
06.11.24
PE Firm Escapes FTC's Challenge to Texas Anesthesiology Roll-Up
Speaking Engagements
05.24.24
Hot Topics in Mergers & Acquisitions 2024
Firm Events
05.21.24
Understanding the FTC's Noncompete Ban: A Comprehensive Guide for Employers
Press Coverage
05.20.24
Important Considerations Surrounding the FTC Ban on Noncompete Contracts