An appeals court brought a likely end Tuesday to an antitrust class action seeking to undo Southwest Airlines Co.’s 2011 acquisition of AirTran Airways Inc. The ruling is a win for Southwest’s lawyers at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, who previously won sanctions against the prominent San Francisco plaintiffs lawyer who filed the case, Joseph Alioto.
In an eight-page order, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of Alioto’s claims that the merger should be unraveled because it’s anticompetitive. The panel wrote that Alioto failed to point to the sort of consumer injury that would justify such an stern remedy. The court also faulted Alioto for waiting until the merger had closed to challenge it, writing that the delay made his bid to undo the deal especially disruptive.
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