USA Law and Practice Contributed by: Robert Houck, William Lavery, Joseph Ostoyich and Leigh Oliver, Clifford Chance US
Clifford Chance US 2001 K Street NW Washington DC 20006 USA
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Email: leigh.oliver@cliffordchance.com Web: www.cliffordchance.com/home.html
1. Introduction 1.1 Current Framework for Private Antitrust Litigation In the USA, private plaintiffs can sue for antitrust vio - lations under both federal and state law, and private parties continue to actively pursue lawsuits in the technology, healthcare and other industries. Recent important antitrust cases include the following. • In Chalmers v NCAA , Judge Claudia Wilken from the Northern District of California approved the USD2.8 billion settlement in favour of former Divi - sion I student-athletes who alleged that the Nation - al Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) prevented plaintiffs from profiting from their own personal brand while in college due to the NCAA’s control of athletes’ name, image and likeness (NIL) rights. • In Regeneron v Amgen , a jury returned a verdict and award of USD407 million in damages for Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc, after finding Amgen, Inc liable for antitrust and tort violations by creating a cross-therapeutic bundled rebate scheme. • In Epic v Apple , Epic Games filed a complaint against Apple in August 2020, alleging that Apple engaged in anti-competitive practices, which resulted in a permanent injunction to restrain Apple’s monopolisation of the iOS app distribution market and the in-app payment processing market. Apple has now been found in “wilful violation” of the injunction and in civil contempt for perjury and
abuse of attorney-client privilege to delay proceed - ings. • In International Construction Products v Caterpil- lar , the plaintiff alleged that Caterpillar tortiously interfered with a contract between International Construction Products (ICP) and IronPlanet. While a jury originally awarded ICP USD100 million in damages, in March 2025 a district judge vacated the entire award for damages, ruling that ICP failed to provide sufficient evidence of actual damages. 1.2 Recent Developments In recent years, US antitrust authorities and private plaintiffs have aggressively challenged proposed mergers and alleged anti-competitive practices in a wide array of industries. Many recent notable cases have either found antitrust violations or resulted in set- tlements. In addition to the private cases discussed in 1.1 Current Framework for Private Antitrust Liti - gation , US antitrust authorities have brought several cases as well. In FTC v Meta , the federal district court ruled that the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) claim against Meta, for allegedly monopolising the personal social media networking market through its acquisi - tions of Instagram and WhatsApp, was plausible. A six-week bench trial followed, which concluded in May 2025. Furthermore, in United States v Google (including both advertising technology and search-related cases), a district judge held that Google “violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act by wilfully acquiring and maintaining monopoly power” in the open-web display publisher
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