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 action. After 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

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UFC MMA Fighters Antitrust Litigation

Cung Le, et al v. Zuffa, LLC, d/b/a Ultimate Fighting Championship (D. Nev.): Cohen Milstein is co-lead counsel in this certified wage suppression class action, representing mixed martial arts (MMA) fighters who allege that UFC unlawfully monopolized the MMA market by, among other things, locking up fighters in exclusive contracts and acquiring MMA rivals. On February 6, 2025, the court granted final approval of a historic $375 million settlement against UFC – exclusively for the MMA fighters in the Le class action. The Johnson class action continues.

In re Lipitor Antitrust Litigation

In re Lipitor Antitrust Litigation (D.N.J.): Plaintiffs allege that Pfizer, the manufacturer of the cholesterol drug Lipitor, the best-selling drug in pharmaceutical history, conspired with Ranbaxy, the generic manufacturer, to delay its introduction of a generic Lipitor product. On October 1, 2024, the Court granted final approval of a $35 million settlement against Pfizer for its role in the alleged anticompetitive scheme. Litigation against Ranbaxy is ongoing. Cohen Milstein is Co-Lead Counsel to the End-Payor Plaintiffs class.

Ideker Farms, Inc., et al. v. United States of America (NW Missouri Flood Litigation)

Ideker Farms, et al. v. United States of America (Fed. Cl.): Cohen Milstein represents Ideker Farms and more than 400 other plaintiffs located in six states along the Missouri River in a landmark mass action lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims alleging that the federal government took land and flooding easements over lands owned by farmers without any compensation in violation of the takings clause of the Fifth Amendment. Cohen Milstein has helped lead the litigation team, including during both a months-long liability trial in 2017, and a subsequent damages trial in 2020 for bellwether plaintiffs. In December 2020, the Court ruled largely in favor of bellwether plaintiffs. In June 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit concurred with the lower court and reversed and remanded the issues of compensation for lost crops and 2011 flooding to the lower court to determine valuation.

Past Cases

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Allen et al v. Dairy Farmers of America

Allen et al v. Dairy Farmers of America, Inc. et al (D. Vt.): Cohen Milstein served as Lead Counsel for one of two subclasses of dairy farmers challenging anticompetitive conduct in the Northeast which resulted in lower prices paid to farmers. In April 2017 the Second Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a $50 million settlement between plaintiffs and the remaining defendants, bringing the total settlement to more than $80 million, in addition to industry-changing equitable relief.

In re Google LLC Street View Electronic Communications Litigation

In re Google LLC Street View Electronic Communications Litigation (N.D. Cal.): Cohen Milstein was co-lead counsel in a nationwide class action alleging that Google violated the Wiretap Act when its Street View vehicles secretly collected payload data from unencrypted Wi-Fi networks. Plaintiffs defeated a motion to dismiss raising novel Wiretap Act issues, and the ruling was affirmed on interlocutory appeal to the Ninth Circuit. The court approved a $13 million settlement in March 2020.

In re Electronic Books Antitrust Litigation

In re Electronic Books Antitrust Litigation (S.D.N.Y.): Cohen Milstein was co-lead counsel in a certified price-fixing class action against Apple and five leading U.S. publishers for conspiring to raise the retail prices of e-books. In addition to achieving class certification, the Cohen Milstein team defeated motions to exclude the class expert and successfully moved to exclude most of Apple’s expert testimony. The five publishing defendants settled for $166 million and Apple settled for $450 million, shortly before trial, bringing total settlements to $616 million. The settlement resolves damages claims brought by not only ebook purchasers, but also the U.S. Department of of Justice and attorneys general from 33 U.S. states and territories.