The Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission published the following Federal Register notices June 21 on AD/CVD proceedings:
The FTC seeks a protective order to prevent disclosure of the discovery taken in the commission’s investigation of Microsoft’s proposed Activision Blizzard buy and its administrative proceedings involving the transaction because the discovery contains confidential commercial information from Microsoft, Activision and third parties, said the agency’s motion Saturday (docket 3:23-cv-02880) in U.S. District Court for Northern California in San Francisco. Microsoft and Activision, in a joint response Monday, said they oppose the motion because the FTC refuses to allow their in-house counsel access to confidential trial exhibits.
Comcast and MaxLinear propose an expedited schedule to resolve Comcast’s application for a preliminary injunction to bar MaxLinear from walking away from its contractual obligations to supply chips for Comcast’s broadband gateways (see 2305300045), the companies wrote U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein for Southern New York in Manhattan in a joint letter Thursday (docket 1:23-cv-04436). Time is of the essence, because MaxLinear committed to continue supplying the chips for Comcast's broadband gateways, but only through Aug. 16, in return for Comcast's agreement to withdraw its motion for a temporary restraining order. Under the proposed schedule, MaxLinear would file its brief in opposition to the injunction by July 14, said the letter. Comcast’s reply would be due Aug. 9, it said. The companies also want Hellerstein to set a hearing on Comcast’s injunction application by Aug. 16, said the letter.
Plaintiffs in Local TV Advertising Antitrust Litigation entered into four separate proposed settlements, said a Wednesday order (docket 1:18-cv-06785) in U.S. District Court for Northern Illinois in Chicago. U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall approved preliminary settlements with CBS, Fox, Cox Media and ShareBuilders. Defendants CBS, Fox, the Cox Entities and data-tracking firm ShareBuilders agreed last month (see 2305300073) to a $48 million settlement with advertisers in the long-running antitrust lawsuit stemming from a 2018 DOJ investigation of ad price collusion that arose during inquiries into the failed Sinclair/Tribune deal (see 2306120057). In the settlement, Cox, CBS and Fox agreed to provide information and testimony that could help the advertisers as the litigation continues against broadcasters that aren’t part of the settlement, including Nexstar, Sinclair and Gray. The agreements were arrived at by “arm’s-length negotiations by highly experienced counsel,” meet all factors under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(a), 23(b)(3), and 23(e), and will likely be granted final approval by the court, Kendall said. The court appointed attorney Megan Jones of Hausfeld as settlement class counsel. Plaintiffs One Source Heating & Cooling, ThoughtWorx, Hunt Adkins and Fish Furniture will be class representatives for the settlement classes.
The Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission published the following Federal Register notices June 20 on AD/CVD proceedings:
The Commerce Department published notices in the Federal Register June 20 on the following AD/CV duty proceedings (any notices that announce changes to AD/CV duty rates, scope, affected firms or effective dates will be detailed in another ITT article):
The Commerce Department has released the preliminary results of its antidumping duty administrative review on carbon and alloy steel cut-to-length plate from South Korea (A-580-887), calculating a zero percent AD rate for POSCO (and its affiliated companies). If the agency's finding is continued in the final results, importers of subject merchandise from POSCO entered between May 1, 2021, through April 30, 2022, will not be assessed antidumping duties. Any changes to POSCO's cash deposit rate would take effect upon publication of the final results in the Federal Register.
The Commerce Department published the preliminary results of its antidumping duty administrative review on large diameter welded line pipe from Greece (A-484-803). It found that subject merchandise was sold in the U.S. at less than normal value during the review period, which examined one company, Corinth Pipeworks Pipe Industry S.A. (CPW). In the final results of this review, Commerce will set assessment rates for subject merchandise from CPW entered May 1, 2021, through April 30, 2022.
The U.S. District Court for Eastern New York didn’t abuse its discretion when it denied the motion of eight residents of Kings Point, New York, to intervene in Extenet’s infrastructure lawsuit against the village, said the 2nd U.S. Circuit Appeals Court’s summary order Friday (22-1265). Extenet alleged Kings Point unlawfully denied its application for a special exception permit for 31 small-cell installations to improve wireless service in the village. The residents argue intervention was necessary to protect their individual properties from the purported aesthetic and economic impacts of the proposed small-cell installations. The district court denied the residents’ motion for permissive intervention and intervention as of right, and the 2nd Circuit said it was right to do so. Contrary to the residents’ contention, the district court didn’t abuse its discretion in concluding that the village could “adequately represent” the residents’ interests in this action, said the summary order. As such, the 2nd Circuit can’t conclude the district court erred in denying the residents’ motion to intervene under either Rule 24(a) or Rule 24(b), it said. The district court’s determination on the adequacy of the village’s representation is “alone sufficient to justify the denial” of the residents’ motion to intervene, it said. The 2nd Circuit need not reach the residents’ other claims of error, it said. Those claims include their argument that the district court erred in concluding that their aesthetic interests weren’t “legally protectable interests for the purposes of their motion to intervene under Rule 24(a),” it said. The residents also raise various arguments about how the district court “abused its discretion in concluding that their interests would be adequately protected” by the village, it said: “None is persuasive.” In the same June 2022 order denying the residents' motion to intervene, the district court granted Extenet's motion for a preliminary injunction ordering the village to approve its special exception permit for the small-cells installations.
Charter Communications seeks a temporary and preliminary injunction to prevent defendant Bobbie Gilbert, its former director-state government affairs, from continuing to violate her noncompete agreement and misappropriate Charter’s trade secrets, said Charter’s complaint Thursday (docket 6:23-cv-02717) in U.S. District Court for South Carolina in Greenville.