Valassis Communications, Inc. v. News America Marketing In-Store Services LLC, et al.

Valassis Communications, Inc. sued News America Marketing In-Store Services LLC (NAM) for alleged monopolization of a market for third-party in-store promotions (ISP). ISP are signs and other materials used to advertise consumer packaged goods in supermarkets and other retail stores. Third-party ISP providers, including NAM and Valassis, bid for contracts with retailers that granted the right to sell and place ISP in the retailers. Valassis alleged that NAM drove Valassis out of the third-party ISP business through NAM’s contracting practices, thereby monopolizing the alleged market.

At a July 2021 jury trial in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Compass Lexecon Senior Managing Director Dennis Carlton testified on behalf of NAM regarding damages. Professor Carlton found that Valassis’s damages expert greatly overstated damages by, among other things, failing to account properly for lawful competition for retailer contracts that would have increased Valassis’s costs. Accounting for this error, Professor Carlton found that Valassis’s estimated damages were zero. At the end of a two-week trial, the case reached a successful conclusion.

NAM was represented by Kenneth A. Gallo, William B. Michael, Jane B. O’Brien, and Brette Tannenbaum of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP. Professor Carlton was supported by Dr. Joseph Goodman, Dr. Mary Li, and Dr. Bradley Reiff of the Compass Lexecon’s Chicago office.