By Andrew Albanese | Jan 22, 2021
PW has prepared an explainer.
Who is bringing the suit, and why?
The suit is being brought against Amazon on behalf of three named plaintiffs and a potential class of consumers who bought e-books published by the Big Five “through a retail platform that competes with Amazon at a price inflated by Amazon and its Co-conspirator Publishers’ price restraint.” The suit was filed by Seattle-based firm Hagens Berman, which filed the first e-book price-fixing lawsuit against Apple and five of the then–Big Six publishers in August 2011. And we remember how that turned out: with a federal antirust suit and claims from 33 states. The publishers ended up settling all claims for a total of $166 million in consumer credits. Apple lost at trial a year later and paid out a $450 million settlement.
A New York federal court on Friday denied "Pharma Bro" Martin Shkreli's request to stay discovery in the Federal Trade Commission and states' lawsuit against him until he is released from prison in 2023, stating that the 37-year-old had not shown "good cause" to stay the proceedings.
Properly Invoked to Terminate Auction Consignment Contract
On December 16, 2020, Judge Denise Cote of the United States
District Court for the Southern District of New York issued an
Opinion and Order holding, as a matter of first impression, that
the Covid-19 pandemic was a “natural disaster” within
the meaning of a
force majeure clause.
Therefore, the Court held, an auction house was excused from
performing a consignment contract. See
JN Contemporary
Art LLC v. Phillips Auctioneers LLC, 2020 WL
7405262 (S.D.N.Y. 2020).
Background
In June 2019, JN Contemporary
Act LLC (“JN”) and Phillips
Auctioneers LLC (“Phillips”) entered into a
consignment agreement, in which Phillips agreed to auction a
To embed, copy and paste the code into your website or blog:
The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic constituted a “natural disaster” under a contract’s force majeure provision, Judge Denise Cote of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York recently ruled in
JN Contemporary Art LLC v. Phillips Auctioneers LLC, No. 20-cv-4370, 2020 WL 7405262 (SDNY Dec. 16, 2020). This decision appears to be one of the first by a federal judge concerning such contractual language. Other courts may look to Judge Cote’s lengthy analysis of the meaning of the phrase “natural disaster” in this context when interpreting similar contractual language.