Antitrust Litigation

Representative Matters

• Successfully defended Google in litigations filed by KinderStart, Person, TradeComet, and MyTriggers. In each case the plaintiffs challenged Google's Search rankings and AdWords quality score adjustments as acts of monopolization, and all were dismissed.
• Successfully defended Google in ongoing antitrust and contract litigation in the Northern District of California filed by Dreamstime, a stock photo website. Dreamstime alleged that Google reduced its rankings and entered into promotional deals with other stock photo websites, including Getty and Shutterstock, which favored those sites. In its January 28, 2019 Order, the court dismissed these claims with prejudice, holding that the alleged “mistreatment of Dreamstime as a customer of Google... even by a monopolist, does not necessarily reduce competition in the relevant market.”
• Wilson Sonsini’s antitrust litigators represent Mylan in high-stakes civil litigations as both a plaintiff and a defendant, including in In re Generics, one of the largest alleged conspiracy cases ever. Wilson Sonsini serves as one of five liaison counsel for over 50 defendants in the matter. In another action, Wilson Sonsini represented Mylan as a plaintiff against Celgene in an antitrust case that was resolved when Celgene agreed to pay Mylan $62 million. 
• Representing Seagate Technology as a plaintiff against certain Japanese manufacturers accused of price-fixing on suspension assemblies used in hard disk drives. 
• Represented pharmaceutical company Amphastar in related antitrust and patent cases that were resolved in a global settlement after a successful First Circuit appeal. In June 2019, Amphastar announced that it has entered into a settlement agreement with Momenta/Sandoz, under which Momenta and Sandoz agreed to pay Amphastar $59.9 million.
• Represents Symantec in NSS Labs, Inc. v. CrowdStrike, Inc., et al, an ongoing antitrust litigation pending in the Northern District of California and filed by plaintiff NSS Labs, a cybersecurity testing vendor. Plaintiff alleges refusal to deal claims against Symantec and Crowdstrike, manufacturers of cybersecurity platform products known as endpoint protection products, other testing vendors, and the Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization. On August 13, 2019, notwithstanding an amicus brief from the DOJ, Judge Freeman granted defendants’ motion to dismiss, with leave to the plaintiff to replead.
• Represents Hebei Welcome Pharmaceutical and North China Pharmaceutical Group (NCPG) in the closely watched case concerning vitamin C exported from China. Wilson Sonsini successfully persuaded the Second Circuit to overturn a $150 million judgment against Habei and NCPG. When the Supreme Court later granted cert to hear the appeal, Wilson Sonsini filed the respondents’ brief and argued before the Court. The case has now been remanded to the Second Circuit. 
• Representing Hitachi and two subsidiaries in follow-on litigation relating to a price-fixing investigation by DOJ. Wilson Sonsini has successfully guided Hitachi through complex strategic decisions raised by the parallel nature of the ongoing criminal investigations and civil litigation and negotiated favorable settlements with the class plaintiffs and numerous opt-out plaintiffs. Wilson Sonsini continues to represent Hitachi against a small number of opt-out plaintiffs.
• Defended Walgreens in a consolidated class action litigation regarding 1-800 CONTACTS’ allegedly unlawful search advertising bidding agreements. Plaintiffs allege that some of those agreements between Walgreens (and its former subsidiary Vision Direct) and 1-800 CONTACTS, entered into in order to settle trademark litigation, unlawfully caused the prices of contact lenses sold online to increase. Wilson Sonsini negotiated a favorable settlement, resolving all actions against Walgreens.
• Defended Transitions in a long-running litigation in which class action plaintiffs and a competitor-plaintiff alleged that Transitions engaged in unlawful exclusive dealing and a refusal to deal. Wilson Sonsini successfully represented Transitions in defeating class certification in the Multi-District Litigation (MDL). The competitor-plaintiff Vision-Ease’s refusal to deal claims were dismissed in the District of Delaware, and the parties settled the remaining claims.
• Represented Netflix in a major victory in the Ninth Circuit, which affirmed the dismissal of all claims by a class of subscribers that accused Netflix of conspiring with Walmart to illegally allocate and monopolize the online DVD rental market. Wilson Sonsini also successfully obtained a dismissal of claims by Blockbuster subscribers that they were allegedly harmed by indirect effects of the same conduct.
• Secured the dismissal of antitrust claims brought against Live Nation by a rival concert promoter and venue operator It’s My Party. Plaintiff claimed that Live Nation had engaged in anticompetitive tying of promotion and venue services in order to monopolize the market for concert promotion. After the lower court granted Live Nation’s motion for summary judgment, Wilson Sonsini also fended off plaintiff’s appeal to the Fourth Circuit. 
• Defended Live Nation in a case brought by classes of concertgoers alleging that the company had monopolized a market for live rock concerts. Wilson Sonsini defeated class certification, and the district court’s ruling was affirmed by the Second Circuit. Wilson Sonsini then secured dismissal of claims brought by concertgoers from two cities, resulting in all plaintiffs dismissing their claims.