20 February 2007 - Today, the Supreme Court decided unanimously in favor of Weyerhaeuser Company on the question of how aggressively a business may compete before crossing a line that violates antitrust law.Andrew Pincus, a partner in the Supreme Court and Appellate Practice Group of international law firm Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw LLP argued the case on behalf of Weyerhaeuser.
Weyerhaeuser Co. v. Ross-Simmons Hardwood Lumber Co. revolved around whether the same standard that the Court articulated for predatory-pricing cases applies in cases alleging predatory buying. The Court concluded that it does.To sustain a claim of predatory buying, the Court held, the plaintiff must show that the buyer's bidding up the price of inputs caused the cost of its own output to rise above the revenues generated by the sale of those outputs, and that the buyer had a dangerous probability of recouping the losses caused by this scheme.Because the plaintiff in this case had not satisfied this standard, a $79 million jury verdict was overturned.Business groups, including the United States Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable and the National Association of Manufacturers, filed amicus briefs supporting Weyerhaeuser's argument.
For Pincus, Weyerhaeuser v. Ross-Simmons was his 15th case and third antitrust case in the Supreme Court.
On March 27th, Mayer, Brown partner Steve Shapiro of the Chicago office will argue another antitrust case - Credit Suisse First Boston v. Billing.This will be Shapiro's seventh antitrust case before the High Court.
Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw LLP is among the largest law firms in the world with more than 1,500 lawyers in seven U.S. cities (Charlotte, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Palo Alto and Washington), six European cities (Berlin, Brussels, Cologne, Frankfurt, London and Paris) and in Hong Kong.
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