Innovation and growth can carry their share of challenges. Navigating the complex web of federal, state, and international antitrust and competition laws requires experienced legal counsel.

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Overview

Innovation and growth can carry their share of challenges. Navigating the complex web of federal, state, and international antitrust and competition laws requires experienced legal counsel.

Our mission is to help clients succeed in the marketplace—whether they are facing a private or government antitrust action, being investigated by a government agency, trying to close an acquisition, or preparing an offensive response to a competitor’s unfair or anticompetitive conduct. Our deep bench of seasoned Antitrust & Unfair Competition lawyers provides clients with the resources they need to compete on an even playing field.

We accomplish this goal by cultivating close, thoughtful collaboration with our clients and leveraging technology. As trusted advisors to multinational and niche companies across industries, we offer clients practical advice tailored to their strategic needs. Our team features winning trial lawyers and former government enforcers with strong agency connections and a comprehensive background in market dynamics, industry and regulatory trends, and cutting-edge technology.

Our mission is to help clients succeed in the marketplace—whether they are facing a private or government antitrust action, being investigated by a government agency, trying to close an acquisition, or preparing an offensive response to a competitor’s unfair or anticompetitive conduct. Our deep bench of seasoned Antitrust & Unfair Competition lawyers provides clients with the resources they need to compete on an even playing field.

We accomplish this goal by cultivating close, thoughtful collaboration with our clients and leveraging technology. As trusted advisors to multinational and niche companies across industries, we offer clients practical advice tailored to their strategic needs. Our team features winning trial lawyers and former government enforcers with strong agency connections and a comprehensive background in market dynamics, industry and regulatory trends, and cutting-edge technology.

We turn to Perkins Coie for our most complicated and business-critical matters.

Counseling & Compliance

Our lawyers empower clients to achieve their business goals and strategies through proactive counseling and pragmatic guidance, while minimizing the risks raised by evolving competitive conditions and new program initiatives.

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Antitrust compliance programs and review are crucial, considering the potential for treble damages in private litigation and civil or criminal governmental enforcement. We tackle any and all antitrust issues that might be faced, including:

  • Price fixing
  • Geographic, market, customer, and product allocation
  • Distribution restraints including minimum resale price maintenance, exclusive dealing, reciprocal dealing, territorial exclusivity, tying, national accounts, cooperative advertising programs, and dual distribution
  • State and federal price discrimination (e.g., Robinson-Patman Act) and promotional allowances
  • Group boycotts
  • Refusals to deal
  • Competitor collaborations, joint ventures, and strategic alliances
  • Standard setting and misuse of intellectual property
  • Trade associations and information exchanges
  • Monopolization
  • Franchisor/franchisee disputes
  • Antitrust class actions
  • Government investigations
  • Antitrust compliance and training

Merger Clearance & Review

Our team gets the deal done. We analyze proposed mergers and acquisitions (M&A) to assess the need for merger or premerger filings in the United States and abroad, develop strategies for obtaining any necessary clearances, provide pragmatic counsel for approaching premerger consummation and information exchange issues, and litigate acquisitions when necessary.

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We advise clients on all aspects of merger control, including:

  • Evaluating regulatory clearance
  • Advising on transaction structure and antitrust risk allocation in M&A agreements
  • Preparing phases of merger notification filings, including under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act (HSR Act)
  • Advocating for clients in second request investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
  • Directing strategy in merger reviews by foreign competition authorities
  • Advising on remedy proposals and negotiations
  • Representing interested third parties and divestiture buyers
  • Providing guidance on diligence, integration planning, and other preclosing matters

Our antitrust lawyers represent a broad range of clients, from emerging businesses to market leaders. They are well versed in matters across a myriad of industries, including big data, digital health, chemicals, e-gaming, electronics and computer hardware, software as a service (SaaS), media and entertainment, healthcare and life sciences, technology, retail, financial services, food and beverage, and transportation.

Cartel Investigations and Litigation

Our litigators defend individual and corporate clients who are the targets of DOJ investigations and civil litigation involving price fixing and bid-rigging. In recent years, the DOJ obtained fines of up to $925 million and jail sentences of up to five years in such matters. Civil litigants also routinely file private lawsuits seeking treble damages.

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Perkins Coie’s antitrust cartel professionals unite the firm’s extensive experience in antitrust litigation and its background in white-collar defense and investigations to defend companies and individuals who are subjects of criminal antitrust investigations and civil cases. Our lawyers include former prosecutors from the DOJ’s Antitrust Division and U.S. attorney’s offices as well as knowledgeable civil antitrust litigators.

We advise individuals and companies in responses to grand jury subpoenas, internal investigations, applications for leniency, criminal prosecutions, and civil litigation defense in both class action and opt-out plaintiff litigation. With a sterling track record of trying and winning both criminal and civil cases, our lawyers are well positioned to help clients identify and anticipate issues before they arise. We offer in-depth compliance reviews and pre-litigation and investigation counseling to help companies proactively avoid government investigations.

Our compliance counselors review existing compliance programs to ensure they meet updated government standards and perform antitrust audits.

Civil Litigation

The stakes of business disputes involve more than just legal implications; they frequently carry market, reputation, governance, board, and valuation consequences. Our accomplished litigators protect and pursue clients’ rights in high-stakes antitrust and competition disputes. Our significant experience includes advocating for clients in an array of industries, including technology and communications, retail and consumer products, life sciences and healthcare, aerospace, manufacturing, entertainment, and more.

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Price Fixing, Bid Rigging, and Market Allocation

We have successfully litigated high-profile cases alleging collusion between competitors. With extensive experience prosecuting and defending civil actions, our team understands what it takes to respond to federal, state, international, and agency enforcement actions.

Monopolization

We have litigated a wide variety of cases involving alleged abuses of market power. In addition to defending companies against actions brought by both consumers and corporate plaintiffs, we are adept at identifying and challenging exclusionary conduct by our clients’ competitors through affirmative litigation and coordination with regulators.

Vertical Relationships and Supply Chain

Perkins Coie lawyers have pursued and defended cases involving various arrangements affecting multiple levels of the distribution chain. We provide clients with innovative solutions to challenges pertaining to vertical relationships, including exclusive dealing arrangements, dual distribution, product tying, and resale price maintenance.

Intellectual Property, Licensing, and Enforcement

Our antitrust litigators devise solutions to nuanced issues at the intersection of IP and antitrust. Through collaboration with Perkins Coie’s patent, trademark, and copyright litigators, we have developed experience in cases involving alleged competitive impact from the procurement, licensing, and enforcement of IP rights. We counsel on disputes involving fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory (FRAND) licensing of standard essential patents and the conduct of standard-setting and trade organizations.

Competitor Collaborations

When dealing with trade associations, joint ventures, or other collaborations, our lawyers are well versed in how to achieve collaborative goals while steering clear of antitrust risks. When engaging in competitor collaborations, our lawyers advise on structural modifications, operational restrictions, and communication strategies to mitigate criminal and civil antitrust concerns. Our lawyers build antitrust guardrails that are customized for businesses to ensure that conduct and communications remain on the right side of the law. Given the heightened federal scrutiny around information sharing and exchange, it is more important than ever for companies to avoid improper interactions with competitors.

 

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