Overview
Nutter has a robust and cutting-edge antitrust practice. We take a practical, business-oriented approach toward our practice, because we know the importance of balancing the need for conservative advice, designed to avoid the stringent penalties of the antitrust laws, with the opportunities for creative counseling generated by recent court decisions and federal agency guidelines.
Our clients
Antitrust laws can affect companies in any industry. We have provided counseling and compliance advice to companies of various sizes and in many different industries, including:
Fortune 500 public companies and their boards of directors
Manufacturers, distributors and retailers in many industries
Computer and software manufacturers
Internet companies
Hospitals, physician groups, health plans, and health care industry associations
Specialty producers in manufacturing, chemical and high- tech industries
Commercial real estate owners and developers
Our practice
Nutter has litigated many of the region's leading antitrust cases, from the landmark antitrust conspiracy cases for the film distributors to recent cases involving claims of exclusive dealing, dealer termination, multi-defendant conspiracy, and monopolization. Clients also look to us to represent them in merger and other federal and state antitrust and trade regulation investigations.
Our attorneys counsel clients in all areas of antitrust compliance, including these business issues, which pose antitrust risks:
Pricing decisions
Meetings, exchanges of information and relationships with competitors
Managing customer relationships
Distribution issues
Restrictive licensing and other restrictions related to intellectual property
Refusals to deal
Exclusive dealing and tying restrictions
Dealer termination issues
Mergers, networks, joint ventures, and strategic alliances
We offer antitrust compliance programs, ranging from general legal seminars for management and sales personnel, to programs tailored to the client's needs, and based on careful review or audits of client information and business practices. Our antitrust attorneys also conduct internal investigations and work with special committees within an organization's board when illegal activity is in question.
Representative engagements and successes:
Representing a leading compact disk manufacturer and a vitamin manufacturer in several price-fixing cases pending in Massachusetts state courts
Providing lead antitrust counsel in a Massachusetts state court antitrust proceeding against numerous automobile insurance companies involving conspiracy claims of auto body shop labor reimbursement rates
Representing a major food chain in litigation brought by a competitor alleging bidding irregularities and fraud in connection with a public bid contest for the right to develop highway rest area sites
Representing a shopping mall developer in an antitrust case arising out of contentious zoning litigation among competing developers in the same geographic area, and successfully obtained a motion to dismiss most of the claims in the first case in a New Hampshire state court to apply the Noerr-Pennington Doctrine
Representing a specialty paper manufacturer in a federal monopolization claim against a supplier who had abruptly and dramatically raised prices on less than twenty-four hours' notice; the case settled satisfactorily to the client within three months
Representing the sole provider of radiation therapy facilities in federal court in Montgomery, Alabama, on charges of unlawful exclusive dealing and monopolization, and, after surviving the defendants' motion for summary judgment, settled the case favorably for the client
Defending a physician group in a five-week jury trial in federal court in Rhode Island, on charges of exclusive dealing and providing radiology services to MRI facilities, ultimately settling the case before the jury reached a verdict
Obtaining a jury verdict for a defendant, a national manufacturer of diesel truck engines, in federal court in Boston, in a dealer termination case
Assistance in obtaining dismissal of conspiracy claims in federal court against Massachusetts health plans on claims of exclusionary conduct against chiropractors
Obtaining dismissal of price discrimination claims in federal court in Boston against a large retail department store on allegations of discriminatory grants of promotional allowances
Representing one of the oil company defendants in the Apex v. DiMauro litigation in which the Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York granted summary judgment to all of the defendants, and the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed as to all but two defendants; the case involved allegations of an antitrust and commodities fraud conspiracy among a number of heating oil companies that had traded contracts on the New York Mercantile Exchange, our firm took the lead in moving for and briefing summary judgment
Obtaining judgment from the First Circuit Court of Appeals in favor of defendant, a race car tire manufacturer, reversing the trial court's judgment for plaintiff, on claims of exclusive dealing and concerted refusals to deal, generating a leading "rule of reason" holding under federal antitrust law
Representing a health care trade association before the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit on boycott and monopoly claims
Representing several trade associations and accrediting organizations in the health care field
Representing an acquirer in a contested merger proceeding before the Federal Trade Commission, obtaining a settlement by consent decree that allowed the transaction to proceed
Representing a party complaining to the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice and relevant state authorities about monopolization by a hospital, resulting in a consent decree barring the challenged conduct