Antitrust claims can successfully navigate last decade’s reforms. As market concentration intensifies, especially in the technology sector, it is crucial for class counsel to adequately represent plaintiffs and bring antitrust class actions to safeguard their rights.
In the January 23, 2024 edition of The Legal Intelligencer, Edward Kang wrote, “Collective David Against Corporate Goliaths: Named Plaintiffs’ Standing in Antitrust Class Actions.” Continue reading ›
Considering the difficulties for private plaintiffs to pursue and prevail on antitrust claims under the Sherman Act, Section 2, Epic’s win against Google carries significant consequences for platform operators’ liability under antitrust laws.
In the January 2, 2024 edition of The Legal Intelligencer, Edward Kang wrote, “An Antitrust Storm Brewing in the Walled Gardens: Dissecting the Antitrust Claims in ‘Epic v. Google’.” Continue reading ›
Whether you bring a suit over a complicated product like a social media network or a simple tangible product, like an apple, a relevant product and geographic market must be defined properly to succeed.
In the March 17, 2022 edition of The Legal Intelligencer, Edward T. Kang wrote “What Makes a Market, a Market, Anyway? A Look at Social Media.”
Picture an antitrust action against an apple farmer who supplies almost all the apples in America. If you were bringing the suit for antitrust violation, how would you define the market for an apple? Is it the market for a snack? For healthy snacks? For healthy handheld snacks? For fruits? The list could go on and on. Defining the market for an antitrust analysis becomes far more complicated for products or services that are newer, such as the market for social media networks. When it comes to the Sherman Act one may think that because it has been combatting monopolies for over a century, there can be no room for interpretation about what constitutes a monopoly, much less a market for one. In the past 100 years, however, new markets and questions about those markets have risen. Social media networks probably did not come across the minds of the Sherman Act’s drafters in 1890. Continue reading ›
In the January 21, 2021 edition of The Legal Intelligencer Edward T. Kang, managing member of Kang Haggerty wrote “Antitrust Suits Against Google Shows Damage Inflicted on Businesses, Consumers.”
In reading the spate of recent antitrust actions taken against all-powerful search behemoth Google, you do not have to go very far to see damage done to businesses in our own backyard. A locally based (Paoli, Pennsylvania) search engine upstart DuckDuckGo, best known for protecting the privacy of its end-users, is one such business affected by Google’s monopoly. Continue reading ›
What is a bulk sale clearance certificate, and how is a bulk sale clearance certificate related to a Pennsylvania real estate transaction? In Pennsylvania, a bulk sale clearance certificate must be obtained in all transactions involving the sale of fifty-one or more percent of the assets of a business, including real estate. Because it is common for property owners to create single purpose entities to own the real estate, bulk sale clearance certificates are required in many real estate transactions, since the real estate represents the sole asset (i.e., 100%) of the assets owned by such SPE. A bulk sale clearance certificate from the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue verifies that a particular entity satisfied all tax obligations due to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, including taxes, interest, penalties, fees, charges and any other liabilities up to and including the date of transfer.
Moreover, under 69 P.S. § 529, every corporation, joint-stock association, limited partnership or company organized under the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania or any other state that engages in business in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania which sells in bulk fifty-one percent or more of any stock of goods, wares or merchandise of any kind, fixtures, machinery, equipment, buildings, or real estate, shall give the Department of Revenue ten days’ notice of the sale, prior to the completion of the transfer of such property.
To provide proper notice and comport with Pennsylvania law, the seller must file form REV-181, the Application for Tax Clearance Certificate, with the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue and the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry ten days before the closing of the sale. A copy of the agreement of sale and preliminary settlement statement should be included with the Application for Tax Clearance Certificate. (Note, however, that the Department of Revenue often requests re-submission post-closing so that all closing information and interim tax returns through the date of closing may be submitted). In addition, all such entities must file all state tax reports with the Department of Revenue to the date of the proposed closing on the transfer of property and pay all taxes and unemployment compensation contributions due to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania through the date of closing. If all state tax reports have been filed and if all state taxes and unemployment compensation contributions are paid up to the date of the proposed transfer, the State issues a clearance certificate to the seller, which is then provided to the buyer.
The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 has long stood as a benchmark in antitrust law, aimed at the prevention and dismantling of business enterprises which have knowingly set out to gain monopolistic power over a given market. While the Sherman Act… Continue reading ›
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