Taking the Fifth: The Tipline for 6 April 2023

The defence bar frequently gripes that the Federal Trade Commission benefits from an intense home-field advantage when it brings cases before its administrative tribunal. But the loser – frequently the respondent – gets to pick where the next match is played. Illumina and Grail are taking their appeal against the FTC’s breakup order to the conservative-heavy US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans. Republican presidents appointed three-quarters of the 16 active judges on the bench, though the biotechnology companies still need to prevail over Brussels and financier Carl Icahn even if they defeat the FTC. Also in Tipline, the commission gets a date for its challenge to the merger of two mortgage software companies and the California bar beats an antitrust challenge.