#antitrust-litigation

#antitrust-litigation

Real estate data company Crexi has brought on celebrity lawyer Alex Spiro - known for defending billionaires, rappers, and professional athletes - in its scrap with CoStar Group. According to court filings on Wednesday, Spiro will now defend Crexi in its legal battle with the real estate data giant. The $3,000-an-hour lawyer has represented clients like Elon Musk, Jay-Z, and Megan Thee Stallion, and has also worked for a variety of businesses in disputes with short-sellers, rivals, and regulators.

In a memorandum opinion released Tuesday, Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., said the FTC failed to prove its argument. The case, initially filed by the FTC five years ago, centered on Meta's acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp. "Whether or not Meta enjoyed monopoly power in the past, though, the agency must show that it continues to hold such power now," Boasberg said in the filing. "The Court's verdict today determines that the FTC has not done so."

Alphabet Inc.'s Google was ordered to pay 573 million ($666 million) in two antitrust-damages cases brought by German price-comparison websites following on from a European Union case against the search-engine giant. In a suit brought by Axel Springer SE-owned Idealo, which sought 3.3 billion, the Berlin Regional Court awarded 374 million plus 91 million in interest. In a second case brought by Producto GmbH, another price-comparison service that sought 290 million, the judges granted 89.7 million plus 17.7 million in interest.

The US Department of Justice and a coalition of states are demanding the sale of AdX. This platform enables publishers to sell advertising space through auctions that take place within milliseconds. Google charges a 20 percent commission for this. The Justice Department also wants Google to make the auction system open source, so that it is clear exactly how the winner is determined.