ANTITRUST LITIGATION

Hagens Berman has earned an enviable reputation as experts in this often-confusing, combative area of corporate litigation in which we have recovered nearly $30 billion in settlements. Our antitrust legal team takes an innovative, efficient approach to antitrust law and tries each case with unmatched determination and skill.

Law360-PGOTY-competition.png

Hagens Berman’s antitrust attorneys work to preserve healthy competition and fair trade in the marketplace by protecting consumers and businesses that purchase goods and services from price-fixing, market allocation agreements, monopolistic schemes and other violations of antitrust law and trade restraints.

Our attorneys have a deep understanding of the legal and economic issues within a marketplace, allowing us to employ groundbreaking market theories that shed light on monopolistic, restrictive and anti-competitive practices in violation of both federal and state antitrust and unfair competition laws. Our cases return real results, with nearly $30 billion recovered in antitrust settlements for our clients and more than $320 billion across all practice areas.

TRUE LEADERS IN ANTITRUST LAW

The firm’s antitrust successes have earned it many awards and accolades. In July of 2024, Hagens Berman was named a winner in the antitrust category of The National Law Journal’s Elite Trial Lawyer designation, an award the firm has won or been named a finalist for three times prior. The American Antitrust Institute has highlighted case-specific victories, awarding Hagens Berman for Outstanding Antitrust Litigation Achievement in Private Law Practice four years since 2018. Law360 named Hagens Berman’s antitrust team a Practice Group of the Year in 2022 and 2021, and the firm’s lawyers have been recognized as the top in their field individually by The Daily Journal of California and Best Lawyers..

Judges have praised the firm’s “…unprecedented success in the antitrust field…” and its “…aggressive and independent advocacy…” in antitrust matters.

Hagens Berman’s settlements accounted for 35% of total U.S. antitrust settlements that reached final approval in 2022, including the two largest antitrust recoveries to receive final approval, In re Glumetza Antitrust Litigation ($453.85 million settlement) and In re Ranbaxy Generic Drug Application Antitrust Litigation ($340 million settlement). The firm is ranked third in aggregate U.S. antitrust settlement class recovery ($3.9 billion) during 2009-2022. Hagens Berman also filed more antitrust complaints (304) during 2009-2022 than any other law firm. In this same time period, the firm was lead counsel in 87 settlements.

LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD THROUGH ANTITRUST LITIGATION

Hagens Berman has brought about significant changes to the NCAA’s policies and procedures regulating payments. In the Keller and O’Bannon cases, the firm represented college athletes against the NCAA and Electronic Arts Inc. alleging the companies illegally use college football and basketball players’ names, images and likenesses (NILs) in video games without permission or consent from the player. In those matters, the firm secured a total $60 million in settlements, and checks went out to about 15,000 players, some up to $7,600, with a median around $1,100.

In NCAA Grants-in-Aid Scholarships Litigation, the firm brought an antitrust class action against the NCAA on behalf of college athletes, claiming that the NCAA had violated the law when it kept the class from being able to receive compensation provided by schools or conferences for athletic services other than cash. Following a $208 million settlement in the damages portion of the case — an almost 100% recovery of single damages — the Supreme Court upheld the favorable opinion of the Ninth Circuit in a 9-0 ruling regarding injunctive relief.

The firm continues its work litigating against the NCAA name, image and likeness (NIL) rights and has brought about significant changes already to the NCAA’s policies and procedures regulating payments. Currently Hagens Berman is co-lead counsel in House v. NCAA, which challenges current restrictions on athletes NIL rights and seeks damages for lost NIL opportunities. In House, plaintiffs seek a share of the golden goose, namely, NCAA and conference broadcast and licensing revenues. So far, the firm has cleared two monumental hurdles in the lawsuit receiving class certification status for both the injunctive and damages portions of the case, for classes representing more than 184,000 college athletes in what national media has called a “worst-case scenario” for the NCAA.

A LEGACY OF SUCCESS IN PHARMA ANTITRUST

In the pharmaceutical arena, Hagens Berman represents purchasers of all types in lawsuits alleging that drug companies illegally blocked or delayed generic drugs from coming to market. By keeping generics out of the market, drug companies force purchasers to continue buying their expensive brand-name drugs, lining drug companies' pockets at the expense of those who pay for drugs. Our firm's pharmaceutical antitrust recoveries have returned many hundreds of millions of dollars to purchasers.

Hagens Berman has represented millions of plaintiffs in high-profile class-action antitrust lawsuits in markets as diverse as debit and credit cards services, chicken, turkey and meat processing, personal computer components, real estate commissions, television screens, electric and gas power, college athlete compensation rights, airlines, personal computer software, videogames and internet services. The firm has pioneered cases involving price fixing of wages such as in the animation and food processing industries. The firm is the undisputed leader in bringing cases involving the use of information exchanges to facilitate price fixing in the food processing industry and the housing rental markets.

We are proud of our track record which includes some of the largest recoveries in the nation. As in all practice areas, we fight until we have achieved a high percent recovery for our clients.