Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, WORTH NOTING: Other Antitrust and Trade Regulation developments, (Apr 17, 2026)

By WK Editorial Staff

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

ANTITRUST—E.D. Mo.: A motion to dismiss by Defendants CaremarkPCS Health, L.L.C. and CVS Caremark Part D Services, L.L.C. in a case brought by Centene Pharmacy Services, Inc. for breach of contract and declaratory judgment seeking to compel an assignment of certain antirust claims pursuant to a cooperation provision in the parties’ agreements was granted by the federal district court in St. Louis. The cooperation provision does not entitle Centene to an assignment of those claims, the court held. Centene alleged that “the Agreements require Caremark to assign any claims to [Centene] where only a Caremark Affiliate has standing to pursue the claims.” And according to Centene, a price-fixing conspiracy uncovered by the Justice Department between generic pharmaceutical manufacturers to illegally raise prices triggered those assignment conditions because “CVS Pharmacy is a Caremark Affiliate with exclusive standing to pursue federal antitrust claims over Centene’s purchases at CVS pharmacies.” However, read ordinarily, the cooperation provision allows Caremark and its Affiliates to retain complete ownership of claims for any “Losses” it suffered. The claims Centene seeks are CVS’s federal and direct-purchaser state antitrust claims. The Agreements define “Losses” broadly to include almost every type of conceivable injury and antitrust injuries certainly fall within that sweeping definition. Illinois Brick means Caremark’s Affiliate, CVS, suffered Losses “to the full extent of the overcharge paid by them” and there is nothing left to assign (Centene Pharmacy Services, Inc. v. CaremarkPCS Health, L.L.C., No. 4:24-cv-00804-MAL (E.D. Mo. Apr. 14, 2026)).

ANTITRUST—Bankr. N.D. Tex.: The bankruptcy court in Fort Worth, Texas, dismissed Pivotal Med Supply, LLC’s antitrust counterclaims in a case involving employment agreements. Shortly after Next Science, LLC filed suit against Pivotal Med Supply, LLC, Pivotal Med filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. Pivotal Med also filed counterclaims for antitrust violations and breach of contract. The claims stemmed from Next Science’s employment agreements that include restrictive covenants. However, the allegations noted that the restrictive covenants did not restrain any trade or commerce because neither party sells any biofilm eradication technology products – the focus of the Restrictive Covenants. Pivotal Med improperly relied upon the terms of the covenants in an effort to restrain trade or commerce with respect to products other than biofilm eradication technology products. In doing so, however, Pivotal Med’s own allegations negated the existence of a contract which, in fact, restrains any trade or commerce. Finally, Pivotal Med has failed to allege any antitrust injury associated with the restrictive covenants of the employment agreements (In re: Pivotal Med Supply, LLC, No. 25-40248-ELM (Bankr. N.D. Tex. Apr. 13, 2026)).

ANTITRUST NEWS: U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) led Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Representatives Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.), Becca Balint (D-Vt.), Angie Craig (D-Minn.), Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), and Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) in requesting that the Department of Justice Acting Inspector General (IG) William M. Blier open a new, independent investigation into potential corruption involving the agency's antitrust-related activity. The request follows multiple questionable antitrust enforcement decisions by the Trump administration after meetings between DOJ leadership and corporate lobbyists, as well as the ouster of former Attorney General Pam Bondi and former Antitrust Division head Gail Slater. This pattern raises fresh concerns that the DOJ will intensify its efforts to carry out President Trump’s personal agenda rather than uphold the rule of law. The lawmakers pressed the Inspector General to investigate whether DOJ officials have engaged in misconduct, including with respect to the incidents described above, as well as respond to questions regarding whether DOJ officials have potentially influenced antitrust matters involving their former clients or employers and the extent to which such activity has compromised the credibility and integrity of the decision-making process at DOJ.

ANTITRUST NEWS: U.S. Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) introduced the Restoring Rights of Medical Residents Act to restore competition in the medical residency system by repealing a special federal antitrust exemption. The bill targets a 2004 provision that shields the medical residency matching system from antitrust laws, limiting competition and restricting economic freedom for medical residents. Representative Victoria Spartz (R-IN-05) introduced companion legislation in the House of Representatives. “For decades, a government-protected system dictated where new doctors work and what their compensation would be,” said Senator Mike Lee. “The Restoring Rights of Medical Residents Act restores the rule of law by ensuring this system is no longer exempt from antitrust scrutiny.”

ANTITRUST NEWS: The European Commission carried out unannounced antitrust inspections at the premises of a company active in the chocolate confectionery sector. The Commission has concerns that the inspected company may have violated EU antitrust rules that prohibit cartels and restrictive business practices, as well as abuses of a dominant market position. In particular, the Commission is investigating possible market segmentation in the form of restrictions on the trade of goods between Member States in the Single Market and obstacles to multi-country purchases.

ANTITRUST NEWS: The European Commission has sent Meta Platforms, Inc. a supplementary statement of objections regarding the company’s practices limiting third-party AI assistants’ access to WhatsApp on the same basis as before an October 2025 policy change. It follows a Statement of Objections in which the Commission set out its preliminary view that Meta breached EU antitrust rules by excluding third-party assistants from accessing and interacting with users on WhatsApp,” the commission said in a press release. The EC assessed Meta's decision to re-instate access to WhatsApp for third-party AI assistants subject to the payment of a fee. The Commission preliminarily found that this policy is in effect equivalent to the previous access ban. Meta's conduct risks blocking competitors from entering or expanding in the rapidly growing market for AI assistants. As a result, the commission intends to “impose interim measures to prevent these policy changes from causing serious and irreparable harm on the market,” subject to consideration of Meta’s response.

ANTITRUST NEWS: The European Commission has issued preliminary findings to Google detailing measures it is proposing the company take to comply with provisions of the Digital Markets Act (DMA), including that Google “allow third party search engines to access search data, such as ranking, query, click and view data, on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms.” The proposed measures are intended to “allow third party online search engines, or ‘data beneficiaries’, to optimize their search services and contest Google Search’s position,” the commission said. The commission’s proposed measures address the “eligibility of data beneficiaries to receive search data, including that of artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots with search functionalities”; the “scope of the search data that Google must share”; the “means and frequency by which Google must share search data”; how to “ensure the anonymization of personal data”; setting “[p]arameters for setting fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory prices for search data”; and the “[p]rocesses governing beneficiaries’ access to search data.”

ANTITRUST NEWS: A sentencing hearing for Patrick Joseph Stewart, a Mississippi resident who pleaded guilty to one count of bid rigging and one count of wire fraud related to the sale of sports equipment to public schools, was postponed until July 22, 2026. The hearing was originally scheduled for April 15 in the federal district court in New Orleans (U.S. v. Stewart, Case 2:25-cr-00014-LMA-JVM).

ACQUISITIONS & MERGERS NEWS: The European Commission has approved unconditionally the proposed acquisition by Clarios of three secondary recycling lead smelters, operated by Ecobat in Germany (Braubach and Freiberg) and Austria (Arnoldstein). Clarios is a leading supplier of automotive lead-acid batteries and operates two recycling lead smelters in Germany and Spain. With the transaction Clarios will acquire from Ecobat three additional lead smelters, which are currently supplying recycled lead to both Clarios and its competitors. Based on its market investigation, the Commission found that the transaction, as notified, would not significantly reduce competition. In particular, competing battery manufacturers will keep access to recycled lead and competing recycling lead smelters will keep access to customers.

ACQUISITIONS & MERGERS NEWS: The European Commission has approved the acquisition of joint control of Telecom Italia Sparkle S.p.A. by the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance and Retelit S.p.A., all of Italy. The transaction relates primarily to cable landing stations for submarine cables and related backhaul activities. The Commission concluded that the notified transaction would not raise competition concerns, given its limited impact on competition in the markets where the companies are active. Notably, the Commission found that on all the markets above where the parties' activities horizontally overlap, the combined market shares of the parties would remain moderate and there would remain several viable alternative providers on the market. Furthermore, the Commission concluded that the merged entity would not have the ability or the incentive to foreclose rival providers of backhaul activities.

ACQUISITIONS & MERGERS NEWS: The European Commission has approved the acquisition of sole control of MasOrange, S.L. of Spain by Orange S.A. of France. The transaction relates primarily to the mobile and fixed electronic communications markets in Spain. The Commission concluded that the notified transaction would not raise competition concerns, given the limited impact on the market structure.

ADVERTISING—N.D. Cal.: In the long-running antitrust action between the Las Vegas Sun (“Sun”) and the Las Vegas Review-Journal (“RJ”), the Sun was granted leave to amend its complaint in response to a change in relevant law by the federal district court in Las Vegas. On February 25, 2026, the court received the mandate of the Ninth Circuit, which concluded that the 2005 Joint Operating Agreement (“2005 JOA”) between the parties was unlawful and unenforceable, and reversed the denial of the Defendants’ motion to dissolve the preliminary injunction that kept the 2005 JOA in place. Subsequently, this district court entered an order that both dissolved the stipulated preliminary injunction and granted a TRO pending a scheduled hearing on preliminary injunctive relief. The RJ filed a writ of mandamus in the Ninth Circuit, and on March 30, 2026, the Ninth Circuit compelled this court to vacate the temporary relief granted on the basis that it violated the prior mandate. The Sun’s new motion to submit a new Second Amended Complaint was now before the court. Compared to the operative First Amended Complaint, the proposed amended complaint asserts the same causes of action, except that it additionally seeks a declaratory judgment and preliminary and permanent injunctive relief compelling the RJ to revert to the 1989 JOA, to seek Attorney General approval for an amendment to the 1989 JOA, to provide the Sun with a list of subscribers, and other relief. The proposed amended complaint also recites new facts about events occurring since 2021 that are relevant to previously alleged forms of anticompetitive conduct. Since the Sun’s proposed amendments are not futile, leave to amend was granted. The most consequential changes that the Sun seeks to make to its complaint, such as a new prayer for relief, are responsive to the Ninth Circuit’s opinions on interlocutory appeal and its order granting the writ of mandamus. There was therefore no bad faith or undue delay here, and the proposed amended complaint did not appear to be futile, the court ruled (Las Vegas Sun, Inc. v. Adelson, No. 2:19-cv-01667-ART-MDC (D. Nev. Apr. 10, 2026)).

ADVERTISING—N.D. Cal.: A motion to dismiss filed by Defendants Pierre Fabre USA Inc. and Pierre Fabre Dermo-Cosmetique USA, Inc. in a putative class action alleging violation of California consumer protection laws and common law claims was denied by the federal district court in San Jose. According to the suit, Defendants “prominently advertise and label the Products as ‘Preservative-Free’ and/or ‘0% Preservative,’ despite the fact that the Products contain citric acid—a “well known and welldocumented preservative.” The court held that complaint pleaded an economic injury because the named consumer explained that had she known that the Products contained citric acid, she would not have purchased them or would have purchased them for substantially less, and that she was denied the benefit of her bargain—namely the full value of a preservative-free skincare product. The Plaintiff also alleged substantial similarity sufficient to establish standing as to unpurchased products. Plaintiff’s allegations as to future harm were also sufficient for standing to pursue injunctive relief. Plaintiff plausibly alleged that the challenged representations are—at best—misleading under the reasonable consumer standard. Finally, with respect to past harms, Plaintiff may allege legal and equitable claims in the alternative at the pleading stage and may also proceed on her claim for injunctive relief, the court ruled (Vales v. Pierre Fabre Dermo-Cosmetique USA, Inc., No. 5:25-cv-10523-BLF (N.D. Cal. Apr. 10, 2026)).

AGENCY NEWS: The European Commission appointed Anthony Whelan as the Director-General within its Directorate-General for Competition (DG COMP). The department, together with the national competition authorities, directly enforces EU competition rules to make EU markets work better, by ensuring that all companies compete equally and fairly on their merits. Whelan, an Irish national, is currently Deputy Director-General for State aid policy within DG COMP. He previously served as Digital Adviser to the President von der Leyen.

AGENCY NEWS: The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced the appointment by the Secretary of State for Business and Trade of four new members to the CMA Board. Katie Kapernaros, David Halpern, Michael Mire and Sir Suma Chakrabarti will join the CMA Board as Non-Executive Directors.

CONSUMER PROTECTION NEWS: The FTC announced that it has settled claims filed against a high-level participant in a multilevel marketing (MLM) company that she used false or baseless earning claims to recruit workers, most of whom did not earn any money from the venture. The FTC alleged that Stormy Wellington, who has been a high-level participant in two different MLMs, used deceptive earnings claims to recruit new members to Total Life Changes (TLC) and, more recently, Farmasi. The proposed order prohibits Wellington from misrepresenting or assisting others in misrepresenting how much money others can earn from various business ventures. Wellington also will be required to notify her downline participants about the orders prohibition on making deceptive and unsubstantiated earning claims.

CONSUMER PROTECTION NEWS: Operators of multilevel marketing (MLM) company Forever Living Products International, LLC will be permanently prohibited from making deceptive earnings claims to resolve FTC allegations that the company deceived consumers into believing that they could earn profits from the venture when the vast majority of participants made little or no money, the agency announced. The proposed order requires Forever Living and its operators to have substantiation for any earnings claims and must provide substantiation for any earnings claim they make if a U.S. consumer requests it, and will be barred from misrepresenting that participants have made, will, or are likely to make or receive earnings (or any particular amount of earnings).

CONSUMER PROTECTION NEWS: The FTC announced that it has submitted an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) related to online food delivery service fees for review by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) within the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

CONSUMER PROTECTION NEWS: Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D., Ill.) and Sen. Dick Durbin (D., Ill.) took the lead on reintroducing bicameral legislation aimed at giving give the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and the Do-Not-Call Registry “teeth” by enabling “all telephone subscribers, including small businesses, the ability to seek damages for all unconsented-to telemarketing calls immediately after such a call,” the sponsors said. The proposed Protecting American Consumers from Robocalls Act would delete “residential” from the description of consumers protected by the TCPA and lower the threshold for violations from “more than one telephone call within any 12-month period by on or behalf of the same entity” to “a telephone call by or on behalf of an entity.” It would give the FCC 270 days to amend its rules to reflect the legislation. It would also revise the definition of an automatic telephone dialing system to include systems that dial from a list of phone numbers rather than using a random or sequential number generator.

CONSUMER PROTECTION NEWS: The FTC issued an order approving the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority’s 2026 budget.

CONSUMER PROTECTION NEWS: New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport is leading a bipartisan coalition of 27 attorneys general urging the FTC to propose a rule that regulates hidden and deceptive rental fees. Attorney General Davenport is also publishing guidance putting landlords on notice, and vowing to crack down on violations, of New Jersey’s new law imposing a $50 cap on rental application fees charged to prospective tenants, which goes into effect on May 1, 2026.

CONSUMER PROTECTION NEWS: Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund (AFREF) submitted a comment letter urging the FTC to promulgate a strong rule to address junk fees in rental housing. Rental junk fees are unfair and deceptive practices that charge tenants additional, unexpected, and indefensible costs on top of their agreed-upon rent. Specifically, AFREF urges the FTC to adopt a rule on unfair or deceptive rental housing fees that 1) requires the full, transparent disclosure of all tenant fees prior to lease signing; 2) requires landlords to include all mandatory monthly fees within the agreed-upon rental payment; 3) requires that landlords do not charge tenants inflated costs for services beyond their market value; and 4) require that tenants must be able to easily opt out of optional services.

INDUSTRY NEWS: Charles River Associates (CRA) announced the expansion of its Antitrust Practice with the addition of Mergers & Acquisitions Specialist and Litigation Expert Hitesh Makhija. Makhija will serve as a Vice President in the firm’s Antitrust & Competition Economics Practice.

Attorneys: Valter Malkhasyan (Malk Pogo Law Group, LLP) for Ivy-Karina Vales. Amy Poyer (Barnes & Thornburg LLP) for Pierre Fabre Dermo-Cosmetique USA, Inc. Bradley T. Wilders (Stueve Siegel Hanson LLP) for Centene Pharmacy Services, Inc. Adam L. Fotiades (Zuckerman Spaeder LLP) for CaremarkPCS Health, L.L.C. and CVS Caremark Part D. Services, L.L.C. James J. Pisanelli (Pisanelli Bice PLLC) for Las Vegas Sun, Inc. Amy Gallegos (Jenner & Block LLP) for Sheldon Adelson. Brian S. Abrams (Roberts & Shanlever LLP) for Next Science, LLC. Richard G. Grant (CM Law PLLC) for Pivotal Med Supply, LLC. Hitesh Makhija (Charles River Associates).

Companies: Pierre Fabre Dermo-Cosmetique USA, Inc.; Centene Pharmacy Services, Inc.; CaremarkPCS Health, L.L.C.; CVS Caremark Part D. Services, L.L.C.; Las Vegas Sun, Inc.; Clarios; Ecobat; Telecom Italia Sparkle S.p.A.; Retelit S.p.A.; MasOrange, S.L.; Orange S.A.; Next Science, LLC; Pivotal Med Supply, LLC; Marketing Holders LLC; Lamar Trailers, Inc.; Forever Living Products International, LLC; Financial Reform Education Fund; Google Inc.; Meta Platforms, Inc.

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