Competition Corner

While Google’s strategy eliminated the short-term risk of a potentially volatile jury, it exposed the company to a devastating, long-term issue preclusion risk. This article explains why Google’s bench-trial gamble backfired, and what antitrust defendants can learn from it.

A federal judge recently dismissed a complaint by two reporters alleging, among other things, that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA)—the trade association responsible for the Golden Globe Awards—had illegally denied them membership and its associated benefits, i.e., access to celebrities.

Corporations continuing to grapple with the contours of when U.S. antitrust law applies to conduct outside the United States should take note of the Second Circuit’s latest decision interpreting the Foreign Trade Antitrust Improvements Act (FTAIA), 15 U.S.C. § 6a. In a November 5, 2019 decision in Biocad JSC v. F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. et al., 942 F.3d 88 (2d Cir. 2019), the Second Circuit undertook a detailed analysis of the so-called “import exclusion” under the FTAIA and sided with a narrower interpretation advanced by defendants.