Legal Library: Cases and Proceedings

The FTC required drug supplier Novartis AG to give up its marketing rights to four topical skin care medications, under a settlement resolving charges that Novartis' acquisition of pharmaceutical firm Fougera Holdings, Inc. would harm competition in the market for these topical drugs. The settlement order requires Novartis to end a marketing agreement that allows it to sell three topically-applied generic drugs and return all rights to a fourth generic drug in development to its manufacturer, Tolmar, Inc. According to the FTC's complaint, Novartis' acquisition of Fougera would violate Section 5 of the FTC Act and Section 7 of the Clayton Act by reducing competition in the generic drug markets for three skin care drugs: 1) generic calcipotriene topical solution, 2) generic lidocaine-prilocaine cream, and 3) generic metronidazole topical gel. The complaint also alleges that the acquisition would eliminate potential competition in the market for the sale of diclofenac sodium gel.

The FTC required CoStar Group, the largest provider of commercial real estate information services in the United States, to sell LoopNet's ownership interest in Xceligent, under an order settling charges that CoStar's $860 million acquisition of LoopNet would be anticompetitive. The FTC's complaint alleges the proposed acquisition would reduce competition in the markets for real estate listings databases and information services. The modified final order resolving the charges preserves competition that otherwise would have been lost through the acquisition by requiring the combined firm to sell LoopNet's interest in Xceligent, a significant provider of U.S. commercial real estate information.

Koninklijke Ahold N.V., the parent company of Giant Food Stores, LLC, agreed to sell a supermarket outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to settle charges that its proposed acquisition of the Genuardi's supermarket chain from Safeway Inc. otherwise would be anticompetitive. The transaction, if completed, would eliminate competition between Giant and Genuardi's.  To preserve competition in the local grocery market, the consent order requires Ahold to sell a supermarket in Newtown, Pennsylvania to McCaffrey's supermarkets.