Antitrust
The Paul, Weiss Antitrust Practice advises clients on a full range of global antitrust matters, including antitrust regulatory clearance, government investigations, private litigation, and counseling and compliance. The firm represents clients before antitrust and competition authorities in the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom and other jurisdictions around the world.
Most firms are tapped for their merger clearance work or for their cartel and litigation defense or plaintiff work; our lawyers excel in all areas. With a deep bench of former antitrust officials and first-class trial lawyers, our powerhouse team is equipped to handle matters that carry the most significant reputational and financial exposure.
M&A Clearance
We field one of the nation’s foremost antitrust regulatory clearance teams. Our lawyers have played leading roles in obtaining clearance for high-profile mergers for decades, including the most contested. Our advisory work for clients – including listed and private companies as well as private equity firms – often begins in the boardroom, where we provide counsel on mitigating antitrust risk. It may extend to managing invasive second requests, negotiating regulatory settlements or defending transactions in court. We also regularly advise clients on comprehensive strategies when their interests are implicated in another merger in their industry.
Litigation and Trials
Our antitrust trial experience and record of favorable results are unparalleled. We have represented defendants in many of the most significant civil antitrust trials in recent years. Our top-tier antitrust litigators in New York, Washington, D.C. and California routinely handle the most complicated cases involving allegations of monopolization, price fixing, predatory pricing, bid rigging, exclusive dealing, and claims pertaining to resale price, maintenance and trade secrets. At the pretrial level, we focus on challenging standing, defeating class certification motions and obtaining dismissals. At the trial and appellate level, we are aggressive in developing the economic evidence and expertise that persuade courts to roll back certification and dismiss substantive claims.
Cartel and Criminal Defense
We handle multijurisdictional, high-stakes cartel actions, including civil and grand jury investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the European Commission. We have defended automotive, electronics, sports, media and entertainment companies and major financial institutions, among others, in connection with their most serious cartel matters, successfully narrowing the scope of price-fixing investigations, dissuading regulators from initiating actions, negotiating favorable outcomes and litigating, where necessary.
Deeply Experienced Team
For decades, our lawyers have played central roles in the development of antitrust jurisprudence. Our team includes a large number of former senior government antitrust officials including a former chief of the healthcare section, and former assistant chief, New York office, in the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice; a former U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of New York; a former Director in the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Competition; and one of the nation’s foremost antitrust law professors. The practice regularly earns top-tier rankings in Chambers USA, The Legal 500 US and others.
Global Coordination
As antitrust enforcement has become global, so, too, has our practice, with lawyers from our Washington, D.C., New York, California and international offices coordinating seamlessly to counsel clients in Asia, Canada and Europe on antitrust matters. Our attorneys have provided guidance to both U.S. companies operating in Asia, and Asian companies operating in the U.S. and Europe through the litany of antitrust and competition regimes.
“Lauded as a ‘go-to choice’ for a host of major corporates, the antitrust team at Paul, Weiss … described as ‘stacked with immense talent at all levels’ excels in high-stakes merger clearance and regulatory investigations, leveraging deep agency experience.”
- Legal 500 US
Recent
Experience
Recognition
Global Competition Review: Highly Recommend
- Chambers USA: Band 1 firm in New York for its strong representation in antitrust issues, regulatory, and M&A concerns for premium clients
- D.C. team named by National Law Journal as Washington’s “Litigation Department of the Year – Antitrust”
- Lawdragon: recognized 22 partners on its “Lawdragon 500 Leading Global Antitrust & Competition Lawyers” list, highlighting the firm’s elite status
Recent Engagements
Civil Litigation
- Amazon in several matters, including:
- a putative class action brought on behalf of consumers alleging that Amazon’s “fair pricing” policy, which requires third-party sellers not to use pricing practices that harm customer trust, has raised the prices of products sold by those third-party sellers, violating antitrust law.
- a hearing in front of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust Commercial and Administrative Law. The hearing addressed potential antitrust concerns related to online platforms and market power.
- Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD), a global medical technology company, in numerous matters over the past decade, including most recently in securing a major appellate victory at the Seventh Circuit affirming the dismissal with prejudice of an antitrust class action against BD. Paul, Weiss previously secured dismissal of the class action which was brought by a putative class of all U.S. hospitals and healthcare providers alleged that BD conspired with distributors of its products to inflate the prices of syringes and IV catheters by excluding competitors from the market.
- Google as lead trial counsel in United States v. Google, the blockbuster case seeking to break up Google’s digital advertising business.
- Intuitive Surgical, Inc. in securing a complete defense victory at trial in a high-stakes antitrust suit brought by Surgical Instrument Service Company, Inc., (SIS) alleging that Intuitive illegally tied the sale and service of its da Vinci surgical robots to the purchase of its EndoWrist Instruments.
- Mastercard in numerous government and private antitrust actions over the past decade, including most recently in:
- defending the company for twenty years in class and individual actions brought by merchants attacking Mastercard’s business model and practices, including “interchange” fees and certain rules governing merchants’ acceptance of payment cards. The core Mastercard business model and practices have remained intact following settlements with the merchant class and a large number of plaintiff opt-outs.
- class actions brought on behalf of independent ATM operators and consumer groups challenging Mastercard’s ATM access fee non-discrimination rule.
- an antitrust class action brought on behalf of U.S. merchants alleging that major payments networks, together with card-issuing banks, conspired to shift fraud costs for certain card transactions from card-issuing banks onto merchants in connection with the roll-out of EMV-chip cards in the U.S.
- Morgan Stanley & Company in defense of a putative class action brought on behalf of any individual that bought or sold a U.S. Treasury security for several years, alleging that 26 of the largest financial institutions rigged auctions to manipulate the pricing of U.S. Treasury securities. Paul, Weiss was selected by all 26 defendants, each separately represented by a major law firm, to serve on the defense steering committee.
- Uber Technologies in several significant matters, including:
- an arbitration trial victory in an antitrust action brought on behalf of users of Uber’s ride-hailing app by a customer who challenged the legality of Uber’s business model under the Sherman Act and sought to enjoin surge pricing nationwide. Plaintiff filed a challenge to the arbitration ruling in federal district court and following oral argument, the court upheld the ruling.
- securing the dismissal of a $750 million unfair competition lawsuit brought by the largest taxi conglomerate in Boston in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. The district court previously held that Uber did not compete unfairly in the Boston market when it operated without a license in violation of longstanding taxi rules. The dismissal was upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, which held that Uber was not liable for violating the Massachusetts unfair competition statute or the common law for unfair competition.
Merger Clearance
- Apollo Global Management, funds managed by affiliates of Apollo Global Management, Inc. and its portfolio companies as antitrust counsel in several transactions, including:
- in its $6.3 billion acquisition of International Game Technology’s gaming and digital business IGT Gaming and Everi Holdings.
- in their $7.1 billion acquisition of Tenneco Inc, one of the world’s leading designers, manufacturers and marketers of automotive products for original equipment and aftermarket customers.
- ABC Technologies, a Canada-based company majority owned by funds managed by affiliates of Apollo, in the antitrust aspects of its takeover bid of TI Fluid Systems PLC, a UK-based multinational automotive fluid company, valued at just over £1 billion ($1.27 billion).
- Endeavor Energy Resources, a Texas-based oil and gas exploration and production company, in the antitrust aspects of its $26 billion merger with Diamondback Energy, a Texas-based independent oil and natural gas company.
- EP Group, in its high-profile £3.5 billion cash offer for International Distribution Services plc (IDS) (Royal Mail Group).
- Farelogix, a technology company that connects travel agencies with airlines, as lead antitrust counsel in connection with the DOJ’s investigation and subsequent lawsuit seeking to block its proposed acquisition by Sabre, a leading global distribution system (GDS), alleging that the merger would eliminate competition for booking services in the online and traditional travel agency markets. Following a two-week bench trial in federal court, the court issued an opinion in favor of Farelogix, ruling that the DOJ did not establish harm to competition on both sides of the two-sided market at issue.
- IBM as antitrust counsel in numerous transactions, including:
- its $6.4 billion acquisition of HashiCorp, a California-based provider of Infrastructure Lifecycle Management and Security Lifecycle Management for cloud environments.
- in its pending acquisition of DataStax, a California-based AI and data solution provider.
- its strategic partnership with Palo Alto Networks, a California-based cybersecurity company.
- KPS Capital Partners and its portfolio companies as antitrust counsel in a variety of transactions, including:
- KPS Capital Partners and its portfolio company Eviosys, a Switzerland-based supplier of metal packaging, in the €3.615 billion sale of Eviosys to Sonoco Products Company, a South Carolina-based sustainable packaging producer.
- in its approximately €1.7 billion carve-out acquisition of INEOS Composites, a global manufacturer of unsaturated polyester resins, from INEOS Enterprises.
- Resolute Forest Products Inc., a global forest products company, in its $2.7 billion acquisition by The Paper Excellence Group through the Group’s wholly owned subsidiary, Domtar Corporation.
- Roark Capital Group in connection with its acquisition of Subway Restaurants, one of the world’s largest quick service restaurant brands.
- Spirit Airlines in a 17-day bench trial in the District of Massachusetts against the DOJ and several states that had brought an action challenging the proposed sale of Spirit to JetBlue. This was the first challenge to an airline merger that was litigated to conclusion in district court. Although the district court entered an order enjoining the merger, the decision is noteworthy as Spirit and JetBlue succeeded in rebutting the government’s prima facie case and persuaded the court that the transaction would result in substantial benefits to American consumers.
- TPG in several transactions, including:
- in the antitrust aspects of its EUR 3.9 billion acquisition of Aareon, a Germany-based provider of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions for the property industry.
- in the antitrust aspects of its $2 billion strategic investment in Veeam, a Washington-based data protection and management platform.
- in the antitrust aspects of its $2.2 billion take-private acquisition of Altus Power, Inc.
- WestRock in the antitrust aspects of its $20 billion combination with Smurfit Kappa, creating Smurfit WestRock, a global leader in sustainable packaging.
Cartel Defense
- A manufacturer of compact construction, agricultural and maintenance equipment in a criminal antitrust and civil False Claims Act (FCA) investigation by the DOJ and the General Services Administration’s Office of Inspector General.
- A multinational chemicals company in connection with an investigation conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division into allegations of collusion in the fragrance industry. Paul, Weiss also represents the company in parallel class action litigation seeking treble damages and other relief.
- A U.S. holding company and its subsidiary in a criminal antitrust investigation and private litigation concerning the cement and ready mix concrete markets in the southeast United States.
