The Second Circuit recently set aside a $147 million verdict against two Chinese companies accused of conspiring to fix the price and supply of vitamin C sold to U.S. buyers. In re Vitamin C Antitrust Litigation. The panel held that the complaint should have been dismissed after the Chinese government submitted an amicus curiae brief confirming that Chinese law required the companies to fix prices and, in effect, violate U.S. antitrust law. The panel found that the companies could not simultaneously comply with U.S. and Chinese law and, drawing on principles of international comity, vacated the district court judgment.
Yasmin Emrani
Taming the Bull Rider: Chancery Court Reining in Mootness Fee Awards in Merger Litigation
Last month, the Delaware Chancery Court drastically reduced – from $275,000 to $50,000 – a mootness fee award requested by plaintiffs’ counsel in a lawsuit challenging the merger between PayPal and Xoom Corporation, finding the supplemental disclosures that flowed from the lawsuit provided only minor benefits to stockholders. In re Xoom Corp. Stockholder Litigation. The steep fee reduction reinforces Trulia’s admonition earlier this year that the days of $250,000-$350,000 attorneys’ fee awards for meaningless additional disclosures are over, as Delaware judges will carefully scrutinize attorneys’ fee requests for litigation that yields disclosures of little or no value.
To Save Secrecy Lawsuit, Twitter Must Challenge DOJ’s Decision to Classify Surveillance Requests
This month, a federal judge dismissed Twitter’s lawsuit challenging limits on the disclosure of government requests for information on Twitter users, pressing the company to file an amended complaint contesting the government’s decision to classify such requests.
The case, Twitter, Inc. v. Lynch, began in 2014 after the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) prohibited Twitter from releasing a report that listed the aggregate number of surveillance requests the company had received pursuant to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The surveillance requests sought information about Twitter users in connection with national security investigations. The FISA restricts public disclosure of certain details about surveillance requests. Interpreting these non-disclosure provisions, the DOJ determined that the aggregate number of surveillance requests received by Twitter constitutes classified information that may not be released publicly.