Professional notice
Ballard Spahr’s nationally ranked Antitrust and Competition Group has the experience, depth, and bench strength to vigorously defend businesses in high-stakes civil and criminal antitrust cases—from multidistrict litigation and class actions to investigations by federal and state authorities and any ensuing criminal actions. We also offer strategic guidance on circumventing class actions, securing antitrust clearances, and developing a cogent competition strategy that will hold up in court, at the negotiation table, or before an antitrust agency.
Our attorneys have achieved success for clients through every possible means: through decisive advocacy in court and strategic thinking during appeals; via advantageous settlement; by prevailing on critical pretrial rulings; and by consistently gaining tactical advantages, such as narrowing the scope of litigation and limiting potential damages.
We are currently defending one of the country’s largest agricultural companies in one of that industry’s largest class actions. We also are representing a global biopharmaceutical company in one of the largest criminal antitrust cases in the United States. We have obtained important victories in precedent-setting cases with billions of dollars on the line. And when a company’s market share has been threatened by anticompetitive conduct, we have obtained significant victories at trial and through multimillion-dollar settlements.
Our clients include global corporations such as GlaxoSmithKline, Teva Pharmaceuticals, and Corteva. We represent leaders in the chemicals, financial services, pharmaceutical and life sciences, higher education, transportation, accreditation, and consumer products industries. We also serve as antitrust counsel for a variety of industry groups, including an electric utility initiative focused on greening the supply chain.
Litigation
We have tried and won antitrust cases in courts throughout the country and defended charges of price-fixing, monopolization, vertical and horizontal restraints, and tying arrangements. We represent clients in litigation and during investigations by the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ), Federal Trade Commission (FTC), U.S. attorneys, and state attorneys general.
We also help clients go on the offensive if they are being harmed by a competitor’s violations of antitrust law.
Business Combinations and Transactions
We advise on the antitrust implications of planned business combinations, acquisitions, and collaborations. We prepare pre-merger notification filings under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act for offerors and targets and handle "second requests" and other investigations initiated by the DOJ and FTC.
Compliance and Policy Issues
Our preventive counseling guides clients in the areas of product pricing, discounts, distribution arrangements, trade association activities, and risks presented by transactions. We offer comprehensive advice on: product pricing, including resale price maintenance, Robinson-Patman Act price discrimination, and promotional allowance provisions; product distribution, including tying arrangements and other distribution issues; and trade association activities.
False Advertising Litigation
From protecting value to assuring the right of fair dealing, Ballard Spahr is uniquely positioned to serve as a skilled adviser and advocate to companies looking to safeguard the reputation of their products from imitators. Our antitrust, competition, and intellectual property lawyers have significant experience with prosecuting and defending false advertising claims under the Lanham Act and related intellectual property and competition claims under other federal and state laws. We have successfully prosecuted and defended cases involving billions of dollars in sales at issue. We regularly assist clients in evaluating potential claims and in engaging competitors or regulators in correspondence with the aim, often successful, of curbing the conduct without resort to litigation.
Criminal Investigations and Violations
We represent publicly held corporations, officers and directors, and prominent individuals in federal and local grand jury investigations and defend them in any ensuing proceedings. Our skill and success in trying criminal cases provide leverage for negotiating the best possible resolutions. Although we regularly handle high-profile cases, most of our matters never go to litigation or become publicly known. Instead, our lawyers resolve matters without charges filed, lawsuits brought, or reputations harmed. With every engagement, our lawyers work efficiently, get up to speed quickly, are acutely sensitive to client needs in difficult situations, and apply creativity in reaching the optimal solution.
Website: www.ballardspahr.com