As reported in the April 2014 of Orrick's Antitrust and
Competition Newsletter, on March 27, 2014, the 7th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals affirmed a district court decision that
Motorola's price-fixing claims based on purchases that its
non-U.S. affiliates made from non-U.S. defendants were barred under
the Foreign Trade Antitrust Improvement Act (FTAIA). Motorola
Mobility LLC v. AU Optronics Corp. et al., 746 F.3d 842 (7th
Cir. 2014). The 7th Circuit issued its decision based solely on the
petition for review and without full briefing on the merits or a
hearing.
That denial, which surprised many, has since turned into an
unusual series of orders from the 7th Circuit, which might be
attributed to the complexity and difficulty of analyzing and
applying the FTAIA in light of international comity concerns. On
April 24, 2014, Motorola submitted a petition for rehearing en
banc, which was supported by a joint brief filed by the U.S.
Department of Justice and the U.S.
