The Antitrust Practice Area has a depth of experience representing clients in the varied ways federal and state antitrust laws impact their businesses. Our attorneys counsel on avoiding conduct that can lead to large criminal and civil penalties. When clients are accused of violating antitrust laws, our attorneys bring to the courtroom years of experience in litigating antitrust cases.

Our antitrust practice attorneys' experience covers all areas of antitrust and trade practice law.

Antitrust Counseling
We counsel on a wide range of antitrust issues, including:

• Pricing, including exchanges of price information, bidding for public and private contracts, price discrimination, resale price maintenance, and predatory pricing.
• Marketing, including structuring distribution systems, dealer relations, dealer termination, franchise relations, exclusive contracts, advertising programs, and related matters.
• Purchasing, including forming purchasing cooperatives, exclusive purchasing arrangements, and buyer liability under the price discrimination laws.
• Mergers and acquisitions, including advising as to proposed mergers and acquisitions, compliance with pre-merger notification requirements, and responding to investigations initiated by the Department of Justice or Federal Trade Commission.
• Competitor cooperation, including joint ventures in the U.S. and in foreign nations, trade association activities, licensing, and related areas.

Litigation
Taft's antitrust attorneys have handled antitrust cases throughout the U. S., including:

• Grand jury investigations and/or criminal proceedings, including in the health care, soft drink, road paving, dairy products, chemical, concrete pipe, plastic components, electrical products and book binding industries.
• State Attorney General investigations and/or resulting civil proceedings, including in the dairy products, oil, greeting card, chemical distribution, space heater, and banking industries.
• Department of Justice/FTC investigations, reviews, and/or enforcement proceedings, including in the health care, greeting card, insurance, retail, broadcasting, metal products, automotive, real estate, restaurant, steel, aluminum castings, chemicals, furniture, entertainment, actuarial, scrap, and banking industries.
• Private antitrust suits for damages or injunctive relief, including in the sports, banking, automotive, oil, scrap, soft drink, dairy products, entertainment, broadcasting, furniture, computer, health care, real estate, grocery, carpet, and other industries.

Antitrust Compliance
Because the penalties for antitrust violations are severe, Taft's antitrust lawyers stress preventive antitrust. We have developed antitrust compliance programs for numerous clients. Each compliance program is specifically designed for the client and industry and may include written compliance guides, periodic training sessions for management, marketing, and key personnel, use of videos or the Internet, and periodic reviews of client operations to address antitrust issues.

Health Care
The firm's antitrust practice attorneys regularly advise health care businesses, including hospitals, health care networks, physician groups, health care organizations, manufacturers of health care equipment or products, and providers for ancillary health care services. Our attorneys counsel as to negotiations with payor organizations, mergers and acquisitions, staff privileges, exclusive contracts, most-favored nation clauses, and the Health Care Quality Improvement Act.

Criminal Defense
Taft has a long history of defending criminal antitrust investigations and prosecutions. A partner in the Antitrust Practice Area is the former Deputy Criminal Chief of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Ohio.