Antitrust news is (rightfully) focused right now on a bill in the California Legislature that would overhaul the Cartwright Act. If passed, AB 1776 will make big waves in antitrust law on several fronts.
Yet earlier this year and with little fanfare, another amendment to California’s antitrust law entered into effect, removing a big impediment to private plaintiffs’ cartel claims.
The amendment explicitly removes one of the two prongs of the pleading standard for federal antitrust claims established by Bell Atlantic v. Twombly and Ashcroft v. Iqbal. While a state antitrust claimant still must plausibly allege an antitrust ...