By Hamsa Mahendranathan

UBS AG reached a $135 million settlement with plaintiffs today in the In re Foreign Exchange Benchmark Rates Antitrust Litigation in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

UBS AG is the second bank to settle in this case—JPMorgan Chase & Co. settled with plaintiffs for $99.5 million in late January.  In addition to the settlement payments, both UBS AG and JPMorgan Chase & Co. have agreed to provide plaintiffs with documents and other assistance in pursuing their claims against the remaining defendants.  The settlements come on the heels of Judge Lorna G. Schofield’s decision on January 28, 2015, denying defendants’ motion to dismiss.

click here for more »

Here are some of the developments in antitrust news this past week that we found interesting and are following.

SolarCity Sues Arizona Utility For Antitrust Violations.  SolarCity, a San Mateo based solar company filed a lawsuit in federal court in Arizona alleging that the Salt River Project, a utility based in Arizona, violated antitrust laws.  SolarCity is alleging that the utility has sabotaged the ability of Arizona consumers to switch to solar energy.

Judge Sets Date for Hearings in Sysco-U.S. Foods Antitrust Suit.   The proposed merger of the nation’s two largest food distributors, Sysco Corp. and U.S. Foods Inc., will face a crucial test starting on May 5, with the start of a federal court hearing into the Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust lawsuit challenging the deal.  Judge Amit Mehta of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia scheduled the hearing to consider the FTC’s request for a preliminary injunction blocking the deal pending the FTC’s full-blown administrative trial scheduled for July.

Google’s Eric Schmidt Meets EU’s New Antitrust Chief.  Google’s Executive Chairman, Eric Schmidt, travelled to Brussels last week to meet the European Union’s new antitrust chief, Margrethe Vestager, ahead of a key decision on where to take the EU’s long-running investigation into the U.S. search giant.  For the past five years the EU has been investigating whether the U.S. search giant abuses its dominance of Europe’s online search market, where its market share of more than 90% far exceeds its share of the U.S. market.

Apple, Google Poaching Settlement Appears Headed for Approval.  A federal judge seems satisfied with a new proposed $415 million settlement that would end a lawsuit in which tech workers accused Apple, Google and two other Silicon Valley companies of conspiring to hold down salaries.  While Judge Lucy Koh of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California did not formally rule on whether she would preliminarily approve the new deal, she expressed no objections about the size of the settlement and set another hearing date to consider the $415 million deal.  Last August, Judge Koh rejected the previous proposed $324.5 million settlement as too low after one of the plaintiffs objected.

Here are some of the developments in antitrust news this past week that we found interesting and are following.

U.S. Asks If Comcast, Time Warner Cable Restricted Video Deals.  Federal regulators vetting Comcast Corp.’s proposal to buy Time Warner Cable Inc. want to know if the cable giants tried to restrict Walt Disney Co. and other entertainment providers from offering programs to rival online video outlets.  Among other avenues of inquiry, the FCC has asked eight media companies, including CBS Corp. and Discovery Communications Inc., to describe any limits to online distribution imposed by the two largest U.S. cable providers.

F.C.C. Approves Net Neutrality Rules, Classifying Broadband Internet Service as a Utility.  The Federal Communications Commission voted to regulate broadband Internet service as a public utility, a milestone in regulating high-speed Internet service.  The new rules seek to ensure that no content is blocked and that the Internet is not divided into pay-to-play fast lanes for Internet and media companies that can afford it and slow lanes for everyone else.

FTC Puts Conditions on Novartis AG’s Proposed Acquisition of GlaxoSmithKline’s Oncology Drugs.  Global pharmaceutical company Novartis AG has agreed to a proposed FTC consent decree that will require it to divest all assets related to its BRAF and MEK inhibitor drugs, currently in development, to Boulder, Colorado-based Array BioPharma to settle charges that Novartis’s $16 billion acquisition of GlaxoSmithKline’s portfolio of cancer-treatment drugs would likely be anticompetitive.  The FTC investigation is notable for its substantial cooperation with antitrust enforcers in Australia, Canada, and the European Union.

Ninth Circuit Refuses to Rewind Netflix Win.  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has agreed Netflix shouldn’t be on the hook for allegedly colluding with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to divvy up the market for online DVD rentals.  The Ninth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a lawsuit alleging that Netflix and Walmart ran afoul of antitrust laws in their 2005 deal that transferred customers of Walmart’s DVD-rental subscription service to Netflix in return for Netflix’s agreement to promote Walmart’s DVD sales business.