Bates White

Bates White is routinely tapped to handle high-profile matters before the world’s top competition enforcement agencies. The Washington, DC-based outfit has a close relationship with highly regarded European consultancy E.CA Economics, extending its reach across the Atlantic. At the forefront of the consultancy’s antitrust practice are Ales Filipi, Anna Meyendorff and Slava Zayats, who are joined by 88 other competition economists.

Notable recent merger control highlights include advising Beaumont Health and Spectrum Health on the likely competitive effects of their proposed tie-up. Experienced partners Cory Capps and Leemore Dafny – a former deputy director for healthcare and antitrust at the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Economics – led the way on the deal, which was pulled-and-refiled before being approved by the FTC. George Rozanski and Arun Sharma, meanwhile, handled another healthcare assignment, advising Centene on its $2.2 billion acquisition of Magellan Health, which required remedies before its eventual approval. Elsewhere, Nicholas Hill was retained by US Sugar in relation to its proposed acquisition of Imperial Sugar, which closed in September 2022 after the Department of Justice failed to block the deal. Hill was also hired by the DOJ as it successfully sued to block the merger of Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster on the basis that it would cause substantial decreases in book advances to authors of anticipated bestsellers.

On the litigation front, former FTC Bureau of Economics director Joseph Farrell submitted expert reports in a Canadian class action litigation on behalf of plaintiffs who allege that Amazon forced third-party sellers to agree a most-favoured nation provision that prohibited them from offering their products on other platforms at prices lower than those charged on Amazon. Michael Whinston, the Sloan Fellows Professor of Management at MIT, meanwhile, was instructed by the DOJ in a civil antitrust suit against Google alleging that it monopolised internet search and search advertising by denying competitors access to distribution channels. Bates White is also involved in the Rail Freight Surcharge antitrust litigation, acting on behalf of plaintiffs who allege that BNSF, CSX, Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific conspired to increase the price of rail freight transportation in the US by imposing unreasonable fuel surcharges.