Americas by Reorg Litigation, Regulatory and Legislative Special Situations Tracker 10.19.23

Relevant Item:
Special Situations Tracker (PDF)

Reorg’s updated Americas Litigation, Regulatory and Legislative Special Situations Tracker for today, Thursday, Oct. 19, is now available on the Reorg site HERE.

As of today, the tracker covers 132 situations: 112 ongoing disputes in litigation, eight regulatory proceedings and 12 involving pending legislation.

Key developments discussed in the tracker include:

• Sandoz Inc. urged the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania to reject state attorneys general and end-payor plaintiffs’ motion for a “draconian” $1 billion prejudgment attachment in the generic pharmaceuticals price-fixing multidistrict litigation. The plaintiffs seek the attachment because of concerns that Sandoz Group AG’s recent spinoff from Novartis will enable MDL defendant Sandoz Inc. to file for bankruptcy without “serious repercussions” for Sandoz Group AG.


• DISH Network, T-Mobile and the U.S. Department of Justice agreed to extend DISH’s option to purchase 800 MHz spectrum licenses from T-Mobile through April 1, 2024. DISH agreed to pay a $100 million extension fee to T-Mobile that would be credited to the purchase price if DISH acquires the spectrum.


• Wildfire victim class-action plaintiffs filed an amended complaint against Hawaiian Electric in which they propose a “limited fund class action” proceeding, arguing that it would offer “a more equitable and efficient means of distributing available assets than the likely alternative of bankruptcy.”


• Bausch Health subsidiary Salix Pharmaceuticals and Norwich Pharmaceuticals submitted briefs in their respective appeals of a district court judgment that prohibits the U.S. Food and Drug Administration from approving Norwich’s abbreviated new drug application, or ANDA, for a generic Xifaxan competitor until 2029.


• The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of the Collins GSE shareholders’ claims under the U.S. Constitution’s Appropriation Clause and their claims based on improper restrictions on the president’s ability to remove the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.


• Briefing concluded in the U.S. departments of Health and Human Services, Labor and Treasury’s appeal of U.S. District Judge Jeremy Kernodle’s Feb. 6 summary judgment decision vacating the August 2022 final rule implementing the No Surprises Act independent dispute resolution process.


• The U.S. Chamber of Commerce renewed its complaint seeking to halt implementation of the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation program by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and​ Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. A federal judge previously denied the chamber’s motion for a preliminary injunction halting the program.


• The Federal Communications Commission voted to move forward with net neutrality regulations that would ban broadband providers from blocking, throttling and prioritization arrangements. FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel stressed that the regulations are “not a stalking horse for rate regulation.”

New lawsuits covered by Reorg include:

• Ligado Networks sued the U.S. government in the U.S. Federal Court of Claims, alleging that government officials and agencies unlawfully appropriated the company’s spectrum rights, and that this eliminated up to $39 billion in value. The complaint asserts that the Department of Defense and Department of Commerce “unlawfully prevented Ligado from using the electromagnetic spectrum” that it exclusively licensed from the Federal Communications Commission for terrestrial services.


• New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit alleging that Gemini Trust Co., Genesis Global Capital and Digital Currency Group defrauded more than 230,000 investors of more than $1 billion.


• A group of Weber minority shareholders accused the company’s directors and controlling shareholder BDT Capital Partners of breaching their fiduciary duties by “squeezing out” minority shareholders for “an unfair price” when taking the company private in 2022.

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