Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, WORTH NOTING: Other Antitrust and Trade Regulation developments, (Nov 7, 2025)

By WK Editorial Staff

A periodic roundup of other items of interest to the Antitrust and Trade Regulation community.

ANTITRUST NEWS: A Division I women’s college basketball player has filed suit against the NCAA seeking a declaration that the player was eligible to participate in intercollegiate competition for the 2025–2026 academic year and to utilize her remaining season of eligibility without restriction. After two years at Pepperdine, a year playing at the University of Miami, and one year playing at the University of Central Florida, the player sought a waiver to play a fifth year of basketball at a fourth school. The NCAA denied the waiver. The NCAA’s Five-Year Rule limits each athlete to four seasons of intercollegiate competition within a five-year period following initial collegiate enrollment. The NCAA also maintains a narrow set of exceptions to these limitations through its Hardship, Medical Redshirt, and Season-of-Competition Waiver provisions. The player alleged that the NCAA’s enforcement of its eligibility and waiver rules, including its application of the Five-Year Rule and denial of Plaintiff’s Season-of-Competition Waiver, constituted an unreasonable restraint of trade under the Sherman Act and Florida Antitrust Act (Stedman v. National Collegiate Athletic Association, No. 1:25-cv-25095-PCH (S.D. Fla. Nov. 4, 2025)).

ANTITRUST—D. Nev.: In the sentencing phase of an antitrust and wire fraud criminal case, the government convinced the court to increase by 20 levels the base offense level for the defendant’s wire fraud, where the government proved, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the defendant devised a scheme to take money from a purchaser of the defendant’s health care staffing company by failing to disclose the Department of Justice investigation into the business, and that this omission was intentional and material. Because the defendant gained $10.459 million for his fraud, that amount was used calculate the increase to the defendant’s base offense level under U.S. Sentencing Guideline §2B1.1(b)(1) (U.S. v. Lopez, No. 2:23-cr-00055-CDS-DJA (D. Nev. Nov. 5, 2025)).

ANTITRUST NEWS: The American Antitrust Institute (AAI) announced the launch of the AAI Appellate Project, a new initiative designed to strengthen the position of pro-enforcement litigants in antitrust appellate proceedings and improve the administration of the antitrust laws. The Project brings together public-minded appellate experts and creates a hub for pro-consumer antitrust appellate advocacy through moot courts, strategic guidance, and CLE programming. “The AAI Appellate Project underscores our commitment to ensuring that antitrust law continues to serve consumers, workers and competition,” said Randy Stutz, AAI’s President.

ANTITRUST NEWS: The Battery Stewardship Council (BSC) has been granted an exemption for the next five years by the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) to allow it to continue to operate its B-cycle Battery Stewardship Scheme (Scheme). Following the decision, BSC members and industry participants can continue to operate the Scheme without breaching competition laws. The Scheme aims to significantly increase appropriate end-of-life battery disposal and recycling in Australia.

ACQUISITIONS & MERGERS NEWS: The UK Competition & Markets Authority announced that it has cleared the anticipated acquisition by Global Payments Inc. of Worldpay Holdco LLC. Global Payments and Worldpay primarily overlap in the supply of merchant acquiring services. Merchant acquiring services are used by merchants to facilitate the acceptance of digital payments. The CMA does not believe that it is or may be the case that the Merger may be expected to result in a substantial lessening of competition (SLC) within a market or markets in the United Kingdom.

AGENCY NEWS: Lina Khan, former FTC chair under the Biden Administration, has been named to the transition team of New York City Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani. Khan is currently an associate professor of law at Columbia University in New York, where she teaches antitrust and competition.

INDUSTRY NEWS: Berkeley Research Group, LLC has appointed Felix Hammeke as a director in its Antitrust & Competition practice in London, reinforcing the firm’s commitment to expanding its European competition offering. Hammeke’s competition litigation experience includes expert roles in Germany and key roles on high-stakes cases in the Competition Appeals Tribunal, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court. He has advised and represented clients during mergers and other competition investigations in the United Kingdom and European Union.

Attorneys: Gregory Emmett Bloom (ChaseLawyers) for Ally Stedman. Albert Bilog Sambat, U.S. Department of Justice, for the U.S. Dan W. Goldfine (Dickinson Wright PLLC) for Eduardo Ruben Lopez.

Companies: National Collegiate Athletic Association; Berkeley Research Group, LLC; Global Payments Inc.; Worldpay Holdco LLC

News: Antitrust AcquisitionsMergers AntitrustDivisionNews FloridaNews FederalTradeCommissionNews NevadaNews