John Graubert has more than 30 years of experience in a wide range of complex antitrust and consumer law matters. Mr. Graubert came to the firm after serving for ten years as Principal Deputy General Counsel of the Federal Trade Commission. Mr. Graubert is co-chair of the firm’s Advertising and Consumer Protection practice group, an Adjunct Professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, and a vice-chair of the Federal Civil Enforcement Committee of the ABA Antitrust Section.
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Yesterday, the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced that it has settled its lawsuit against ValueAct Capital Management L.P. (“ValueAct”) for violating the Hart- Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 (the “HSR Act”). The settlement is noteworthy for two (...)
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The Federal Trade Commission has brought its first suit alleging anticompetitive conduct in connection with the prosecution and settlement of pharmaceutical patent litigation since the Supreme Court’s June 2013 decision in FTC v. Actavis. Although two commissioners dissented from the decision to (...)
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In late January, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) prevailed in a challenge to a hospital merger involving an issue of great significance to the current health care marketplace: the acquisition of physician practice groups. In Saint Alphonsus Medical Center-Nampa v. St. Luke’s Health (...)
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On November 6, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) amended the implementation rules of the Hart Scott Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act (the “HSR Act”) to specify when parties to pharmaceutical patent license agreements must observe the HSR Act’s notification and pre-closing waiting period (...)
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Earlier this month, China’s National Development and Reform Commission (“NDRC”) announced that it is conducting a wide-ranging probe into the costs and prices of pharmaceutical products sold by more than 60 multinational and domestic companies. NDRC has broad powers to enforce China’s Price Law, (...)
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On May 8, China’s Supreme People’s Court (“SPC”) issued its Rules on the Application of Laws for Adjudicating Civil Disputes Arising From Monopolistic Conduct (“the Rules”). According to the SPC, the Rules, which take effect June 1, are intended to ease plaintiffs’ burdens and are thus likely to have (...)
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On January 5, China’s Ministry of Commerce (“MOFCOM”) issued new regulations regarding investigations and sanctioning of companies that fail to notify transactions under China’s Anti- Monopoly Law (“AML”). Under the regulations, which take effect on February 1, non-compliant companies may be fined up (...)
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The US and China have taken a step towards closer coordination of their investigations of mergers and other transactions under their respective antitrust laws. Yesterday, after high-level consultations in Washington, the two countries’ antitrust merger control agencies released Guidance for Case (...)
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China’s National Development & Reform Commission (“NDRC”) announced this week that it has fined two domestic pharmaceutical companies for monopolizing bulk sales of promethazine hydrochloride in violation of the country’s Anti-Monopoly Law (“AML”). The decision, NDRC’s first AML action in the (...)
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On July 7, 2011, the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice (“the Agencies”) announced significant changes to the form and accompanying materials that companies must submit when reporting transactions under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act (“HSR Act”). Although the (...)
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Last week, the U.S. Justice Department (“DOJ”) and Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) (together, the “Agencies”) issued revised Horizontal Merger Guidelines (the “Guidelines”) describing how the Agencies seek to determine whether a merger of competing companies will substantially lessen competition. The (...)
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In the latest development in the Federal Trade Commission’s efforts to challenge Hatch-Waxman patent litigation settlements, earlier this week a federal district court in Pennsylvania denied in part defendants’ motions to dismiss antitrust complaints challenging a series of such settlements. The (...)
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The Ministry of Commerce (“MOFCOM”) of the People’s Republic of China has rejected on antitrust grounds a proposed acquisition by The Coca-Cola Company of the Huiyuan Juice Group, a Chinese manufacturer and distributor of fruit drinks. This is the first complete rejection of a substantial proposed (...)
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On February 25, 2009, the United States Supreme Court issued an important antitrust ruling in Pacific Bell Telephone Co. v. linkLine Communications, Inc. (No.07-512)(“linkLine”)concerning unilateral pricing decisions. linkLine continues the clarification and narrowing of Section 2 doctrine in the (...)
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In the first major test of China’s new merger control regime, the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China (“MOFCOM”) has published its decision approving the proposed InBev/Anheuser-Busch merger (see translation set forth below), and released on its website an interview with Shang (...)
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On April 22nd, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals set aside the FTC’s 2006 decision that Rambus Inc. unlawfully monopolized four technology markets through deceptive conduct during the JEDEC standards development process for two widely-implemented computer memory standards. The Court held that (...)
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China’s Anti-Monopoly Law (“AML”) has required review and approval of proposed transactions that meet the AML’s filing thresholds by the Ministry of Commerce (“MOFCOM”) since August 2008. MOFCOM has publicly acknowledged that its merger review process under the AML often results in delayed (...)
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