Contact:
Lori A. Schechter or
W. Stephen Smith
Morrison & Foerster’s Antitrust and Competition Law practice is preeminent and global. In 2007, the firm’s practice made the
PLC Competition Super League list of the world’s best competition law practices. In March 2006, Competition Law360 ranked Morrison & Foerster’s antitrust practice as one of the Top 10 antitrust litigation practices in the United States.
The firm has established strong competition law practices in its United States offices, and in Asia and in Europe. The scope
of the firm’s competition practice is broad. It specializes in virtually every area of antitrust law, including litigation,
counseling, and governmental agency representation. The firm also has particular expertise in every facet of intellectual
properly-related antitrust issues, which compliments the firm’s top tier intellectual property practice.
Morrison & Foerster’s antitrust practice includes a seasoned team of marquee trial and antitrust attorneys, to whom many organizations
have turned when facing must-win situations in litigation or before antitrust agencies. The scale of the practice, with experienced
antitrust lawyers in each major office around the world, allows the firm to handle a wide range of matters involving multi-state
and international issues seamlessly. For example, because of the depth of its international expertise, the firm is uniquely
suited to handle matters involving private and/or governmental litigation in the United States with related investigations
and/or proceedings abroad. Clients also benefit from the team’s depth of experience in every aspect of antitrust law and its
expertise in a wide range of industries, including computer hardware and software, life sciences and healthcare, semiconductors
and components, transportation, communications, consumer products, and energy.
In the United States, Morrison & Foerster lawyers have represented parties in the largest private antitrust litigation matters
from the trial stage through all levels of appeal. The firm currently represents parties in many of the most significant antitrust
cases pending in the U.S. courts, including:
In re Payment Card Interchange Fee and Merchant Discount Antitrust Litigation
In re ATM Fee Antitrust Litigation
In re Air Cargo Fuel Surcharge Antitrust Litigation
In re Static Random Access Memory (SRAM) Antitrust Litigation
In re Late Fee and Over-Limit Fee Litigation
In re LTL Shipping Services Antitrust Litigation
The firm also regularly handles cutting-edge antitrust issues on appeal, including amicus briefing on behalf of Fortune 500
companies and trade associations in recent milestone antitrust cases before the U.S. Supreme Court such as Texaco Inc. v.
Dagher, 126 S. Ct. 1276 (2006), and Verizon Communications v. Trinko, 540 U.S. 398 (2004).
Morrison & Foerster attorneys also represent clients in matters before both federal and state antitrust enforcement agencies
on a range of issues, including the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission, and state
attorneys general. Among the firm’s clients in these venues are ALLTEL, Fujitsu, Tanox, TDK, and Yahoo!. In addition, the
firm’s lawyers provide counseling to clients on the full spectrum of antitrust issues, including mergers and acquisitions,
joint ventures, pricing policies, intellectual property licensing, distribution arrangements, trade associations, unfair trade
and deceptive advertising issues, and antitrust compliance programs.
With the strength of its global practice, Morrison & Foerster also has lawyers who specialize in representing clients before
non-U.S. regulatory bodies, such as the European Commission and the Japan Fair Trade Commission. Among the clients represented
by the firm in matters involving multi-jurisdictional antitrust/competition law issues are Hitachi, Matsushita Electric, Thomson,
and Toshiba.
Representative Matters
In Re Publication Paper Antitrust Litigation. The firm represents Norske Canada, one of the world’s leading producers of papers including directory, newsprint and uncoated
groundwood papers, in more than twenty-five federal multi-district and state court antitrust class action suits in eleven
jurisdictions against major producers of publication papers, as well as in related antitrust enforcement agency matters world-wide.
In re Currency Conversion Fee Antitrust Litigation. The firm represents Bank of America in antitrust class action litigation against certain credit card networks and card-issuing
banks regarding foreign currency conversion fees.
EchoStar v. Gemstar. The firm successfully represented EchoStar Communications Corporation in an action alleging that Gemstar engaged in monopolistic
conduct and unreasonably restrained trade in the licensing and sale of interactive television program guide technology and
products.
In re Natural Gas Antitrust Cases I, II, III and IV. The firm represented El Paso Corporation and its subsidiaries in one of the broadest and most comprehensive antitrust settlements
ever reported in energy litigation, resolving disputes between El Paso, the states of California, Nevada, Washington, and
Oregon, and private litigants arising out of the so-called “California energy crisis.”
Oracle/PeopleSoft. The firm represented Oracle in its $10.3 billion tender offer for PeopleSoft. The transaction was reviewed by the Department
of Justice, the European Commission and other competition authorities.
Hitachi/IBM. The firm represented Hitachi Ltd. in its $2 billion acquisition of IBM’s hard disk drive business. The transaction was reviewed
by the Federal Trade Commission, the European Commission and other competition authorities.
JDS Uniphase/SDL. The firm represented JDS Uniphase Corporation in its $41 billion acquisition of SDL. The transaction was reviewed by the
Department of Justice, the Canadian Competition Bureau and other competition authorities.
