The first article discusses the recently granted permanent injunction blocking the proposed merger of Penguin Random House (PRH) and Simon & Schuster (SS). The second article discusses a systematic approach to managing and using big data in litigation.

In the first article, Jason Albert discusses the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) monopsony allegation and market definition in the PRH and SS merger case. Dr. Albert notes that DOJ focused on authors as labor, argued that the merger would result in increased monopsony power, and is likely to focus on labor markets in future monopsony cases.

The first article discusses the Department of Justice’s (“DOJ”) first guilty plea in a criminal no-poach antitrust case. The second article also addresses no-poach antitrust issues, with a discussion of recent decisions regarding the McDonald’s and Burger King class action cases. The third article pertains to sponsored search auctions (“SSA”) and analyzes the importance of seller and bidder information in online advertising auctions.

In the first article, Erica Greulich discusses the recent case in which VDA OC LLC (“VDA”) plead guilty to claims that it violated antitrust law by participating in an alleged scheme to limit the wages of nurses. Dr. Greulich discusses how the guilty plea, along with other efforts by the DOJ, may further increase the likelihood that the DOJ will pursue more labor-side antitrust investigations.