ANTITRUST CASES
U.S. 5th Circuit, May 14, 2008
N. Texas Specialty Physicians, No. 06-60023
Petition for review of an opinion and order by the Federal Trade Commission regarding allegations of price fixing is granted and the case remanded to modify the order where: 1) the FTC had jurisdiction by virtue of the adverse effects to out-of-state parties; 2) although the defendant is a single entity, it is controlled by a group of competitors with substantially similar economic interests; 3) a quick-look analysis was appropriate since the anticompetitive effects were obvious; 4) denial of a discovery motion did not violate due process; and 5) a subsection of the remedial order is overly broad and internally inconsistent.
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U.S. 6th Circuit, May 15, 2008
In re Scrap Metal Antitrust Litigation, No. 06-4511
In an antitrust action involving the scrap metal market in Northeastern Ohio, judgment and damages award for plaintiffs are affirmed where: 1) there was no abuse of discretion in allowing expert testimony based on allegedly erroneous data; 2) the fact that the jury awarded damages are below the figure mentioned by an expert witness did not mean that there was insufficient evidence since the jury was entitled to award damages based on expert testimony it found credible; 3) there was no "impermissible fluid recovery" since plaintiffs provided evidence of a class-wide aggregate injury; 4) there was no abuse of discretion in the certification of a class ; and 5) any error in instructions to the jury regarding fraudulent concealment was harmless since the jury heard evidence of fraudulent concealment dating before the earliest date of consideration set by the court.
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