Court Grants Summary Judgment to Compass Lexecon’s Client OneLink Communications in Sham Litigation Case

In 2011, Puerto Rico Telephone Company, Inc. (PRTC) claimed that OneLink Communications violated antitrust laws by conducting “sham” litigation over a period of four years, which delayed PRTC’s entry and launch of Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) service in Puerto Rico. PRTC claimed that OneLink embarked on multiple objectively baseless lawsuits in both state and federal court to thwart or delay PRTC’s entry into OneLink’s franchise territory. OneLink argued that it had genuine concerns that PRTC was engaged in illegal activities, that it did not engage in any "sham" litigation and that antitrust liability would not follow because any delays in approving PRTC’s franchise application were the result of governmental acts. In two decisions, the District Court of Puerto Rico relied on the Noerr-Pennington Doctrine to grant OneLink’s motions for summary judgment. The Court concluded that OneLink did not engage in a series of sham petitions and its litigation filings were immune from Sherman Act violations.

Compass Lexecon’s Senior Managing Director Jon Orszag was retained by Thomas Demitrack, Michael R. Shumaker, Tracy K. Stratford and Brian K. Grube from Jones Day to provide expert testimony regarding market definition, monopoly power, and damages. Mr. Orszag’s testimony showed that the relevant market included at least all MVPDs in OneLink’s service territory; that Plaintiff’s expert did not show that OneLink had monopoly power in the relevant markets; and that the Plaintiff’s expert damages calculations vastly overstated PRTC’s alleged lost profits. The Compass Lexecon team working on this matter included Guillermo Israilevich, Jay Ezrielev, Rahul Sekhar, Carolina Czastkiewicz, Hassan Faghani Dermi, Quinn Johnson, Piyal Hyder and others from our Washington, DC and Chicago offices.