Practice Strengths

Baker Hostetler’s Antitrust and Trade Regulation practice is as dynamic as the environment in which we practice. Our lawyers offer depth of experience not only in representing clients before federal and state courts and administrative tribunals and antitrust and consumer protection law enforcement agencies, but also in counseling clients on issues that may arise abroad and formulating global solutions.

For example, how should a worldwide company address such issues as:

• Risk of antitrust lawsuits from non-U.S. plaintiffs under the ground rules set by the Supreme Court’s Empagran decision?
• International expansion under the watchful eyes of foreign and U.S. merger authorities?
• Navigating inconsistencies between U.S. and foreign antitrust laws?
• Defining a competitive market and quantifying market power in a global marketplace?
• Distinguishing unlawful conspiracy from lawful “conscious parallelism”?

In addition, Baker Hostetler’s Antitrust and Trade Regulation team routinely represents corporate clients, trade associations and individuals in resolving more traditional problems that arise under longstanding U.S. antitrust laws. We counsel clients with an eye toward preventing antitrust and trade regulation problems from arising and in resolving existing problems without litigation where feasible. When litigation arises, however, our lawyers draw on their substantial litigation experience to obtain favorable results for our clients in cases involving antitrust, consumer protection and consumer product safety.

Antitrust
Our practice runs the gamut of the antitrust laws, including issues involving concerted action, monopolization and attempts to monopolize, and price discrimination. We represent clients in investigations and litigation initiated by the Antitrust Division of the Justice Department (civil and criminal), the Federal Trade Commission, state attorneys general, and foreign enforcement authorities, as well as private treble-damage antitrust litigation. We also counsel and represent clients involved in mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures regarding the antitrust analysis of the proposed transaction; any premerger notifications that may be required under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act or foreign competition laws; and defense of the transaction if it is investigated.

Consumer Protection
We represent and advise a broad range of clients, from giant consumer products firms whose names are household words to niche marketers who need advice about or representation in matters involving federal and state consumer law requirements. These involve all aspects of advertising and marketing, from cutting-edge issues of electronic commerce by telemarketers and online sellers to direct marketing by infomercials as well as traditional print and broadcast ads. Credit, mail order compliance, warranties and other specialized areas, such as sweepstakes and other games of chance, are within our scope of services.

When disputes turn into litigation, we help companies fight in court or reach acceptable out-of-court settlements, often in situations where it is important to deal with multiple parties, such as federal and state regulators, and private plaintiffs who may bring or threaten to bring simultaneous legal challenges that must be resolved on a global basis. Our biggest successes are often non-public, such as convincing a government agency to close an inquiry or to advise a company in a manner that avoids regulatory issues, but in a way that is sensitive to, and the least disruptive to, its legitimate marketing goals.
 
Consumer Product Safety
Our attorneys have extensive experience in representing clients before the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, including the submission of required reports and notifications, and designing and implementing product recalls and other corrective actions.

In addition, our attorneys are thought leaders in shaping developments in antitrust law. Baker Hostetler antitrust and trade regulation attorneys are quoted frequently in the general and trade press on current issues, publish commentary on antitrust developments, are active in the Antitrust Section of the American Bar Association, and have made substantial contributions to the ongoing work of the Antitrust Modernization Commission. In addition, our antitrust and trade regulation team is led by a former Federal Trade Commission attorney, and a number of our other attorneys have served in government antitrust and consumer protection enforcement agencies. As a result, we offer clients an enforcement perspective on litigation and counseling—both in the United States and abroad.

We balance competitive risk and legal compliance in antitrust disputes.

Antitrust & Trade Regulation Experience

• Developed a joint operating agreement application for two large publishing concerns, gained approval of the agreement by the Attorney General under the Newspaper Preservation Act, and defended the agreement against an attempted preliminary injunction by a local advertiser, allowing the two newspapers to merge their business operations and save millions of dollars through operational efficiencies.
• Won a defense verdict in a jury trial in Long Island for a leading retailer of aftermarket automotive parts in a case brought by some 200 independent aftermarket auto parts dealers who sought $1 billion in antitrust damages from large national and regional retailers of aftermarket parts.
• Won summary judgment for Puerto Rico's largest newspaper and its affiliated commercial printing company in an antitrust case brought by a competing printing company alleging attempted monopolization of the market for printing newspaper advertising inserts.
• Won summary judgment for a large auto glass repair and replacement company in an antitrust suit brought by independent automobile glass repair shops claiming unlawful exclusion from auto insurers' repair networks.
• Won summary judgment for one of the big three automakers in an antitrust case in Texas brought by a truck dealer challenging the automaker's sales assistance program.
• Defended a national beauty products firm against an antitrust suit in Tennessee attacking its distribution policies to sell only to professional salons.
• Defended a major Canadian potash producer against class action claims of a price-fixing conspiracy among Canadian and U.S. potash companies.
• Won a victory for a major university hospital in an antitrust suit in Washington, DC brought by a surgeon who maintained that his hospital privileges had been illegally terminated.
• Represented the only successful foreign national plaintiffs in monopolization litigation against an international software manufacturer.
• Secured the reinstatement of a dealer that had been terminated by a leading international manufacturer for allegedly violating the manufacturer's resale policy.
• Counseled a trade association of U.S. and multinational manufacturers entering into an alliance with its Chinese counterpart.
• Won a jury verdict for a fully integrated energy company, when the State of California and City of Long Beach sued for antitrust violations in the billions of dollars, alleging a crude oil purchasing conspiracy among energy companies.
• Represented a biological products concern in a major vitamin industry price-fixing case involving over 100 criminal and civil lawsuits worldwide, with our client paying only minimal fines compared to the multimillion dollar judgments and criminal sentences for other defendants.
• Represented a small medical device manufacturer as plaintiff in a monopolization case against one of the biggest medical device manufacturers in the world, asserting an attempt to drive our client from the market through abuse of market power, improper bundling, tying of incentives and organization of a group boycott.

What really sets us apart is our practical experience as trial lawyers. The Baker Hostetler team includes former top prosecutors of the U.S. Justice Department (four of whom received the Attorney General's Distinguished Services Award), former prosecutors for major municipalities, veteran civil trial attorneys and enforcement officials from various federal agencies, from the Department of Energy to the SEC and NASD (now FINRA).