Bates White

The 95 competition specialists at Bates White worked on 55 mergers within our research window, including 11 that were sent to a Phase II review and five that required remedies. The firm was also involved in over 30 competition-related litigations and eight government investigations.

On the merger side, economist Nicholas Hill in Washington, DC, was retained as an expert witness for Evonik and PeroxyChem when the Federal Trade Commission attempted to block their merger. The FTC sued to block the deal in August 2019, alleging that the tie-up would likely harm competition in the market for hydrogen peroxide in the Pacific Northwest and the southern and central regions of the United States. In January 2020, the US District Court for the District of Columbia denied the FTC’s request for a preliminary injunction blocking the merger.

The firm also advised Sinclair Broadcast Group in analysing the likely competitive effects of its acquisition of 21 regional sports networks originally owned by 21st Century Fox. Disney divested the networks as part of its agreement with the Department of Justice to acquire some of Fox’s assets. Following an investigation into the divestiture, the DOJ approved Sinclair’s acquisition.

In litigation matters, Bates White expert Randal Heeb advised on the Packaged Seafood Products antitrust litigation, where a class of purchaser plaintiffs have accused multiple food companies of participating in an industry-wide tuna price-fixing scheme throughout the United States from November 2010 to December 2013. The firm developed an econometric analysis to estimate the damages resulting from the alleged conduct. In the Capacitors antitrust litigation, economist Leslie Marx submitted an expert report and testified at a deposition on behalf of multiple direct action plaintiffs, including large electronic component distributors and contract manufacturers.