Legal Library: Cases and Proceedings

In July 2020, the FTC required global suppliers of animal products, Elanco Animal Health, Inc. and Bayer Animal Health GmbH, to divest three animal health products to settle charges that Elanco’s proposed $7.6 billion acquisition of Bayer would likely be anticompetitive in those markets. On Sept. 11, 2020, the Commission announced the final consent agreement in this matter.

In April 2019, the FTC announced that a federal district court judge ordered Srinubabu Gedela and his companies to pay more than $50.1 million to resolve FTC charges that they made deceptive claims about the nature of their conferences and publications, and hid steep publication fees. The court ruling resolved a 2016 Commission complaint alleging that Gedela and the companies falsely advertised online scientific and medical academic journals and international conferences, and deceptively claimed the journals provided authors with rigorous peer review and editorial boards comprised of prominent academics.

Under a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission announced in March 2020, the marketers of an electrical nerve stimulation device called Quell have agreed to pay $4 million and stop making deceptive claims that the device treats pain throughout the body when placed below the knee. They also will stop claiming the device’s efficacy is clinically proven and that it has been cleared by the FDA to treat pain throughout the body. In early September 2020, the FTC announced it was returning almost $3.9 million to defrauded consumers.

Pharmaceutical companies AbbVie Inc. and Allergan plc have agreed to divest assests to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that AbbVie's proposed $63 billion acquisition of Allergan would violate federal antitrust law. On Sept. 4, 2020, the Commission announced the final consent agreement in this matter.

Casino operator Eldorado Resorts, Inc. has agreed to divest assets to settle charges that its $17.3 billion acquisition of Caesars Entertainment Corporation likely would be anticompetitive in the South Lake Tahoe area of Nevada, the Bossier City-Shreveport area of Louisiana, and the Kansas City area of Kansas and Missouri. According to the complaint, the proposed acquisition would harm competition for casino services in these three local markets, increasing the likelihood that Eldorado would unilaterally exercise market power, which in turn would lead to higher prices and reduced quality. In August 2020, the Federal Trade Commission approved a final order resolving those charges.

Tri Star Energy, LLC, Hollingsworth Oil Company, Inc., C & H Properties, and Ronald L. Hollingsworth, which operate fuel outlets and convenience stores, agreed to settle FTC charges that Tri Star’s acquisition of retail outlets and related interests of Hollingsworth would violate antitrust law. The complaint alleges that the proposed acquisition would harm competition for both retail gasoline sales and retail diesel fuel sales in the two local markets of Whites Creek, Tennessee and Greenbrier, Tennessee. Under the proposed consent agreement, Tri Star would be required to divest to Cox Oil Company, Inc. retail fuel assets in Whites Creek and Greenbrier within 10 days after Tri Star completes the acquisition. On August 14, 2020, the Commission announced it had approved the final consent order in this matter.

The Federal Trade Commission sued SuperTherm, Inc., and its principals Roberto Guerra, and Susana Guerra, alleging they make false or unsubstantiated R-value claims about their architectural coatings products. In July 2020, the FTC sued four companies that sell paint products used to coat buildings and homes, alleging that they deceived consumers about their products’ insulation and energy-savings capabilities. In complaints filed in federal court, the FTC charged that the companies falsely overstated the R-value ratings of the coatings, making deceptive statements about heat flow and insulating power.

The Federal Trade Commission sued F & G International Group Holdings, LLC, FG International, LLC, and their principal J. Glenn Davis, alleging they make false or unsubstantiated R-value claims about their architectural coatings products. In July 2020, the FTC sued four companies that sell paint products used to coat buildings and homes, alleging that they deceived consumers about their products’ insulation and energy-savings capabilities. In complaints filed in federal court, the FTC charged that the companies falsely overstated the R-value ratings of the coatings, making deceptive statements about heat flow and insulating power.

Reckitt Benckiser Group plc has agreed to pay $50 million to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it violated the antitrust laws through a deceptive scheme to thwart lower-priced generic competition to its branded drug Suboxone. According to the complaint, before the generic versions of Suboxone tablets became available, Reckitt and its former subsidiary Reckitt Benckiser Pharmaceuticals, now known as Indivior, Inc., developed a dissolvable oral film version of Suboxone and worked to shift prescriptions to this patent-protected film. Worried that doctors and patients would not want to switch to Suboxone Film, Reckitt allegedly employed a “product hopping” scheme where the company misrepresented that the film version of Suboxone was safer than Suboxone tablets because children are less likely to be accidentally exposed to the film product. Invidior has agreed to pay an additional $10 million to settle FTC charges.

Home products and kitchen wares company Williams-Sonoma, Inc. has agreed to stop making false, misleading, or unsubstantiated claims that all of its Goldtouch Bakeware products, its Rejuvenation-branded products, and Pottery Barn Teen and Pottery Barn Kids-branded upholstered furniture products are all or virtually all made in the United States. On July 16, 2020, the Commission announced the final consent order in this matter.

Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics, Inc., settled Federal Trade Commission allegations that the company misled consumers about its participation in the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield framework.