Antitrust

Champions for fair and competitive markets.

When corporations use their market power to hurt workers, consumers, investors or entrepreneurs, we fight back to ensure markets work for everyone.

Overview

We have earned a sterling reputation as one of the most widely respected plaintiffs’ antitrust practices in the country. We combat anticompetitive business practices through complex litigation that challenges price-fixing, wage suppression, group boycotts, and other anticompetitive behavior. Our clients include pension funds, hospitals, workers, and individual consumers. Our class action experience spans industries, including labor, finance, agriculture, automotive parts, chemicals, health care, high tech, media and entertainment, pharmaceuticals, and others.

We gladly take on – and defeat – formidable opponents, which have included such giants as Dow Chemical, Goldman Sachs, and Google.

A FORMIDABLE TEAM

Our attorneys have helped shape the antitrust landscape. Many have served as judicial law clerks; some in the Department of Justice and other governmental agencies, while others have experience litigating for the defense and bring special insight into the strategies of opposing counsel. All are adept at navigating the complexities of industry-specific economics.

As lead or co-lead counsel in some of the nation’s most complex cases we have recovered billions of dollars in damages for injured plaintiffs

  • We achieved a record-setting recovery as co-lead counsel In re Urethane Antitrust Litigation, a price-fixing class actionAfter settling with several defendants for $139 million, we went to trial against The Dow Chemical Company and obtained a $400 million jury verdict. After offsetting the prior settlements and trebling as provided for by statute, the court entered judgment against Dow for $1.06 billion dollars. The case against Dow ultimately settled for $835 million while Dow’s petition for certiorari was pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. Including the Dow settlement, we recovered a total of $974 million for the class – nearly 250% of the damages found by the jury. The jury verdict was the largest price-fixing verdict in the history of the United States, and the largest jury verdict in the country in 2013.  
  • Cohen Milstein currently serves as co-lead counsel in the Securities Lending Antitrust case, which alleges a group boycott of various platforms attempting to modernize the market for securities lending by the world’s largest investment banks.  Partial settlements of $580 million are awaiting court approval while the case is ongoing against Defendant Bank of America.
  • As co-lead counsel in the Electronic Books Antitrust Litigation, which alleged that Apple and five of the six biggest publishers in the U.S. conspired to raise the price of e-books, we litigated together with the Department of Justice and attorneys general from 33 states and territories. The case culminated in a settlement of $560 million, including a settlement of $450 million with Apple shortly before trial.  

Current Cases

Rotavirus Antitrust Litigation

On November 21, 2023, Judge Gerald Austin McHugh of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania largely denied Defendant’s motion to dismiss, finding that Plaintiffs plausibly alleged that Merck violated the antitrust laws through its bundled “loyalty” program for the rotavirus vaccine called RotaTeq. Plaintiffs allege that Merck implemented its bundling […]

In Re Axon VieVu Antitrust Litigation

In Re Axon VieVu Antitrust Litigation (D.N.J.): Cohen Milstein, as Co-Lead Counsel, represents the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore and other municipalities in this consolidated antitrust class action, alleging that Axon unlawfully monopolized the markets for body-worn camera systems and long-range conducted energy weapons, such as Tasers, through acquiring its largest competitor and signing decade-long non-compete, market allocation, and no-poach agreements with its main competitor.

Scharpf, et al. v. General Dynamics Corp., et al.

Scharpf, et al. v. General Dynamics Corp., et al. (E.D. Va.): Cohen Milstein represents naval architects and marine engineers in a putative antitrust wage suppression class action against the nation’s largest military shipbuilders and naval engineering consultancy firms. Plaintiffs allege that starting in at least 2000, Defendants engaged in a “no poach” conspiracy by adhering to an informal “gentlemen’s agreement” among themselves not to recruit each other’s naval engineers.

Past Cases

In re Solodyn Antitrust Litigation

In re Solodyn Antitrust Litigation (D. Mass.): We served as a member of the executive committee and Ms. Robertson played a significant role in coordinating discovery on behalf of the End-Payor Plaintiffs. The case, which settled mid-trial, resulted in a $43 million recovery for the Class.

In re Blood Reagents Antitrust Litigation

In re Blood Reagents Antitrust Litigation (E.D. Pa.): Plaintiffs alleged that the two leading producers of blood reagents, Ortho–Clinical Diagnostics, Inc. and Immucor, Inc., conspired to raise prices on traditional blood reagents. In September 2012, Immucor reached a settlement with Plaintiffs. On July 19, 2017, the Court denied in part Ortho’s Motion for Summary Judgement. Ms. Robertson was slated to serve as one of four lead trial counsel in the case, which was set for trial in June of 2018 but ultimately settled for a total recovery of $41.5 million.

In re Loestrin 24 FE Antitrust Litigation

In re Loestrin 24 FE Antitrust Litigation (D.R.I.): We served as Co-Lead Counsel for the End-Payor Plaintiffs in a case alleging that Warner Chilcott PLC entered into agreements to delay the introduction of a generic version of the contraceptive drug Loestrin and thereafter engaged in a “product hop” to further impede generic entry. The case settled on the last business day before trial for $63.5 million – representing one of the largest settlements in a federal generic suppression case in over a decade. On September 1, 2020, the settlements received final approval.