Non-compete rulemaking faces legal hurdles but could help Biden politically

The Federal Trade Commission’s rulemaking on non-compete agreements faces legal obstacles but could reap political and public policy benefits even if it’s struck down in court.

Chess cheating, defamation and the Twombly pleading standard

It’s an unusual legal story that involves international chess tournaments, the Twombly standard for pleading collusion, Arthur Schopenhauer, and radio-controlled vibrating sex devices — all at the same time. But this is such a story.

Current Issue: 795

Next Issue: Feb 14, 2023

FTC commissioners seem headed for confirmation

FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz and commissioner-nominee Maureen Ohlhausen received a mostly friendly reception at their confirmation hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee November 15, but were...

H&R Block drops merger plan

Tax-preparation firm H&R Block is dropping its $288 million purchase of software rival TaxACT, an acquisition that the Justice Department had sued to block, following a ruling in the Justice...

New Italian prime minister an antitrust aficionado

The new prime minister of Italy, Mario Monti, called to save the day in Europe, is a familiar face in antitrust circles here and overseas.

Sen. Kohl criticizes plan to shut regional antitrust offices

The Justice Department’s controversial decision to shutter four of its regional antitrust offices came into the public eye for the first time when Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr., came under...

FTC easing food marketing guidelines

A decision by the FTC and its partner agencies to significantly scale back their sweeping voluntary guidelines on marketing food to children has thrown into question whether the proposed standards...

Leibowitz praises DAA online privacy change

FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz has gone on record publicly praising one of the Digital Advertising Alliance’s revised principles for online privacy.

States press FTC on intellectual property theft

State governments are teaming up to ask the Federal Trade Commission to investigate and prosecute intellectual property theft by foreign-based companies, which they say is undermining the economic...

Lundbeck hearing reviewed

An eight-day bench hearing held in Minneapolis, Minn., in December 2009, could have far-reaching legal implications for antitrust law, particularly regarding future pharmaceutical cases. It could...

CFPB UPDATE: Checking account disclosures

Two senators are focusing in on banks’ fine print on checking accounts and have called on the CFPB to require banks to post a simplified bank account disclosure form on their websites.

CFPB to warn firms of probes—sometimes

When the CFPB takes aim at firms and individuals, it will provide them with advance notice, the agency has announced.

Student Aid Disclosure

As part of its “Know Before You Owe” project, the CFPB has teamed up with the Department of Education to issue a draft “financial aid shopping sheet.”

African plant weight-loss claims

The operator of two companies that marketed a plant from Africa that he claimed would produce weight loss will lose his vacation home under a settlement agreement with the FTC.

Alabamans oppose merger

There’s not much that the Republicans and Democrats can agree on in Washington these days.

Credit reports

U.S. Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) is pressing the FTC to investigate whether new kinds of information-gathering practices by credit-reporting bureaus could injure consumers, and to inform him...

Pay-for-delay

A new analysis by the Congressional Budget Office has estimated that taxpayers would save almost $4.8 billion in the next 10 years, almost twice as much as earlier projections, if an FTC-endorsed...

Skidekids.com

The FTC reached a settlement with the Georgia operator of a social networking site for children over claims that he illegally collected personal information from children without obtaining their...

AT&T

With the nation’s jobless rate stubbornly high, a merger’s effect on employment is becoming a factor again for the first time in decades.

Montana Blue Cross

The Justice Department and the Montana Attorney General’s office have scuttled a plan that would have left many people in the state with even fewer health insurance choices.

Pacific Basin consumer data pact

The FTC scored a victory earlier this month when a voluntary international code of conduct aimed at protecting consumer data traveling between the United States and the Pacific Basin was approved...

Johnson & Johnson

The European Commission has opened an investigation into the planned acquisition of Synthes Inc., a Swiss- American medical device manufacturer, by Johnson & Johnson, considering whether the deal...