Antitrust and Trade Regulation

Honigman's Antitrust and Trade Regulation practice group has a wealth of cutting-edge experience in antitrust litigation, defense of state and federal government investigations and counseling. We have a national practice and have represented clients in the full range of antitrust matters in more than 30 states.

Honigman has successfully defended a number of significant merger investigations and has defeated the U.S. Department of Justice in merger litigation. We have extensive experience in defense of antitrust class actions, and we have defeated class certification on numerous occasions. We have been very effective both defending antitrust claims and representing plaintiffs in antitrust litigation, and in advocacy before state and federal antitrust enforcement agencies. Our experience extends beyond the United States and includes international anticompetitive practices and mergers, including advocacy before the European Commission and the Canadian Competition Tribunal.

Some of our most noteworthy recent successes include successfully litigating the first antitrust case challenging a hospital’s acquisition of a physician practice and the successful defense of FTC investigations of a number of hospital mergers. We have been one of the national leaders in the health antitrust area for many years.

We focus on cost as well as success. For example, we routinely utilize outside document review firms to control the cost of litigation and routinely offer alternative fee arrangements to reduce client costs. Our clients in merger investigations have not been subject to any lengthy and expensive “second requests” in more than a decade. Further, our lawyers’ economics training allows us to often avoid the significant expense of bringing in outside expert economists.

• Challenged anticompetitive actions by dominant hospital system; St. Luke’s Hospital, et al. v. ProMedica Health System, Inc., et al.  

• Challenged hospital acquisition of physician practice; Saint Alphonsus v. St. Luke's Health System, Ltd.
• Defended a series of cases involving allegations of anticompetitive agreements with regard to the sale of infant formula in Michigan (Holmes v. Abbott Laboratories), Alabama (Durden v. Abbott Laboratories), Kansas (Holden v. Abbott Laboratories), and South Dakota (Hagemann v. Abbott Laboratories)
• Defended a series of cases involving claims of price fixing among the manufacturers of brand-name prescription drugs in Michigan (Wood v. Abbott Laboratories), Minnesota (Kerr v. Abbott Laboratories), Maine (Karofsky v. Abbott Laboratories), Alabama (Durrett v. Upjohn Company), and Washington, D.C. (Goda v. Abbott Laboratories)
• Defended a series of indirect purchaser cases alleging price fixing among manufacturers of vitamins, including class actions and multiple plaintiff cases involving consumers, livestock producers, and vitamin supplement manufacturers
• Defended government investigations of physician practices and hospital/physician networks in Florida, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Pennsylvania, and Texas
• Defended government investigations of mergers and joint ventures in the automobile parts, hospital, mainframe computer software, design computer software, supermarket, oil-field servicing, specialty physician practice, and home hardware industries
• Advocated government challenges of mergers and, in some cases, worked with government agencies on those challenges in the hospital and computer testing and debugging software industries
• Advocated investigation of unfair trade practices before the European Commission and Canadian Competition Bureau
• Consulted on mergers in the mainframe computer software industry and IT services industries
• Counseled numerous hospitals and physician groups regarding mergers and acquisitions in Alabama, California, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Jersey, Oklahoma, and Texas
• Counseled physician and hospital networks in Alabama, Arizona, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, Tennessee, and Texas
• Defense of hospital merger; U.S. v. Mercy Health Services
• Defense of physician merger and negotiation of consent order; Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Urology of Central Pennsylvania, Inc.
• Request for injunction against hospital acquisition of physician practice; Saint Alphonsus Medical Center-Nampa, Inc. v. St. Luke’s Health System
• Claim that IBM monopolized and/or attempted to monopolize certain mainframe software "tools" markets, and engaged in unlawful tying in these markets; Compuware v. IBM Corporation
• Claim of antitrust violations by National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) through restrictions on the use of bats in NCAA competition; Easton v. NCAA
• Defense of class action alleging price fixing in the sale of merchandise at NASCAR races;  In re: Motorsports Merchandise Antitrust Litigation
• Defense of consumer class action alleging anticompetitive agreements involving so-called "hidden city" ticketing among several national airlines; In re: Northwest Airlines Antitrust Litigation
• Defense of class action alleging conspiracy to suppress nurses' wages; Cason-Merendo v. Detroit Medical Center
• Defense of challenges to most favored nations contracts with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan; City of Pontiac v. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan
• Defense of claims of patent tying; Dialogic v. VMX
• Defense of claim of boycott of aluminum service center; Champagne Metals v. Ken-Mac, Inc.
• Defended predatory pricing claim; Control Temp. Consultants v. Detroit Edison

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