In an opinion yesterday, Judge Schofield denied various banks’ motion to dismiss a price fixing case concerning a foreign exchange benchmark called the “Fix.” Notably, Judge Schofield distinguished her ruling from Judge Buchwald’s ruling dismissing a similar case concerning the LIBOR benchmark (covered here).  Judge Buchwald had ruled there could be no “antitrust injury” because LIBOR is set by banks acting “cooperative[ly]” (as opposed to acting as competitors) to estimate their borrowing costs, whereas, as Judge Schofield pointed out, banks establish the Fix by actual transactions. Judge Schofield went on to disagree with the LIBOR ruling, to the extent it could be read to require a showing, at the pleading stage, that the injury alleged could not have resulted from unilateral (as opposed to collusive) conduct:
Continue Reading In Allowing Foreign Exchange Price-Fixing Case to Proceed, Judge Schofield Disagrees With Judge Buchwald’s LIBOR Ruling

A few minutes ago, suspended Yankee third baseman Alex Rodriguez voluntarily dismissed his suit against Major League Baseball alleging that it tortiously interfered with his Yankee contract through improper methods of investigating his alleged use of performance enhancing drugs, and also voluntarily dismissed a second suit challenging his resulting suspension.  The two notices are here

In a complaint filed today, Yankee third baseman Alex Rodriguez sued Major League Baseball to overturn an arbitral panel’s decision to largely uphold his lengthy suspension from baseball. The panel’s decision, which was made public for the first time as an attachment to the complaint, reduced his suspension from 211 games to 162, but rejected A-Rod’s arguments to overturn or more substantially reduce the suspension. A-Rod’s complaint takes aim at the author of the arbitral decision, arbitrator Frederic Horowitz:
Continue Reading A-Rod Sues to Void Suspension

Major League Baseball today moved to dismiss Alex Rodriguez’s suit accusing it of tortuously interfering with his Yankees contract and potential endorsement deals. The League argues that his suit is preempted by Section 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. § 185(a), because the allegations are inextricably intertwined with collective bargaining arrangements:
Continue Reading MLB Moves to Dismiss A-Rod Suit; A-Rod Moves to Remand