December 11, 2024
For the 16th consecutive year, Global Competition Review (GCR) has included Bates White on its prestigious GCR 100 listing of the world’s leading antitrust law firms and economics consultancies.
In its 2025 profile of Bates White, GCR spotlighted the firm’s involvement in several high-profile matters from the past year, including advising:
- JetBlue Airways in United States et al. v. JetBlue Airways and Spirit Airlines, in which the Department of Justice (DOJ) sought to block JetBlue’s $3.8 billion acquisition of Spirit Airlines. Nicholas Hill analyzed how the acquisition would likely affect competition in the airline industry.
- VMware on its $69 billion acquisition by Broadcom, which was subject to a second request by the Federal Trade Commission and Phase II investigations by the European Commission and the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority. Dr. Hill and Mico Mao were retained to provide competitive analysis.
- Epic Games in In re Google Play Store Antitrust Litigation, which alleged Google monopolized the market for Android app distribution and in-app purchases. B. Douglas Bernheim played a key role in the case, submitting analyses of the antitrust allegations that assessed market definition, market power, competitive effects, and consumer harm from Google’s conduct. Epic Games secured a unanimous jury verdict finding Google liable. This matter won GCR’s 2024 “Litigation of the year – Non-cartel prosecution.”
- The DOJ in United States et al. v. Google LLC, which alleged Google monopolized the search engine market. The DOJ retained Michael Whinston as an expert witness, who testified three times over multiple days and was the final witness in the 10-week trial. Bates White also supported Antonio Rangel, who testified as the second witness for the DOJ. Judge Amit Mehta of the US District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that Google violated antitrust laws by suppressing competitors in internet search to protect its monopoly.
- Over 65 direct action plaintiffs in the In re Rail Freight Fuel Surcharge Antitrust Litigation, which is ongoing. Dr. Bernheim and Leslie Marx were retained in this litigation against the four largest US railroads.
- George’s and George’s Farms in the Broiler chicken antitrust litigation, in which purchasers accused the company and several other chicken producers of bid rigging and collusion to withhold the production of broiler chickens.
Candidates for the economics section of GCR 100 are evaluated on measures including the number of dedicated antitrust economists in the firm, work over the past year on competitions matters, and the number of experts recognized in the Lexology Index: Competition report. In 2024, 11 Bates White competition economists were named to that list.
