Volume 4: Issue 1
Are Class Actions Lawyers Systematically Targeting Regulated Industries?
MR. WILLIAM BARR: On June 20 of this year, the Second Circuit decided a case called Law Offices of Curtis V. Trinko v. Bell Atlantic Corp., the so-called Trinko case, which, we believe, radically changed the antitrust law in two respects: it expanded the scope of duties that incumbent firms owed to rivals; and it changed the traditional standing limits that barred suits by indirect purchasers. It significantly broadened the kind of conduct that, it could be argued, violated the antitrust laws, and it significantly broadened the scope of the people who can bring these claims.