Ben Bradshaw

Partner

Benjamin G. Bradshaw is a partner in O’Melveny's Washington, DC office and is involved in the Firm’s litigation and regulatory practices, with a focus on antitrust, class action lawsuits, cartel investigations and private damages actions, and transportation.  As a member of the Firm’s Antitrust and Competition Practice, Ben has extensive experience in complex antitrust litigation, as well as antitrust counseling, agency investigations, and merger reviews.  Ben has defended major companies in a broad range of private antitrust actions involving claims of price-fixing, monopolization, and unfair and deceptive trade practices.  He has also represented clients in multiple criminal proceedings and investigations before the Department of Justice.  Ben has been recognized by Legal 500 United States for his antitrust litigation practice. 

Ben’s work in the Aviation Practice Group includes counseling aviation clients on regulatory compliance issues, antitrust and competition law matters, international route proceedings and aviation-related legislation.

Illustrative Professional Experience

• Representing Chemtura Corporation in multiple federal and state price-fixing actions, including the Multi-District Litigation proceedings In re Rubber Chemicals Antitrust Litigation (alleging price-fixing of rubber chemicals), In re EPDM Antitrust Litigation (alleging price-fixing of ethylene propelene diene monomer), In re Plastic Additives Antitrust Litigation (alleging price-fixing of plastic additives), In re NBR Antitrust Litigation (alleging price-fixing of nitrile rubber), and In re Urethanes Antitrust Litigation (alleging price-fixing of urethanes chemicals).

• Represented Crompton Corporation in Crouch v. Crompton, 2004 WL 2414027 (N.C. Super. Ct. 2004), an indirect purchaser class action in which the Court granted Crompton’s motion to dismiss on grounds that plaintiff’s alleged injury was too remote to give plaintiff standing to bring the lawsuit.

• Represented Chemtura Corporation in Moniz v. Bayer A.G. et al., 447 F. Supp. 2d 31 (D. Mass. 2006), where Chemtura defeated an attempt to remand the case to state court after successfully removing the action to federal court under the Class Action Fairness Act.

• Represented Chemtura Corporation in Szukalski v. Crompton, 726 N.W. 2d 304 (Wis. App. 2006), in which the Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court’s dismissal of Crompton on grounds that the complaint did not sufficiently alleged that buyers were substantially affected by the alleged conspiracy.

• Represented Orbitz before the Department of Justice in connection with Orbitz’s creation and launch.

• Represented Univision in connection with the Department of Justice’s review of its merger with Hispanic Broadcast Corporation.

• In re Northwest Airlines Antitrust Litigation: Represented US Airways in a class action lawsuit alleging that airline ticketing rules that prohibit "hidden-city ticketing" violated Section1 and 2 of the Sherman Act.

• Represented Chemtura Corporation in Sperry v. Crompton, 863 N.E.2d 1012 (2007), in which the New York Court of Appeals affirmed Chemtura’s dismissal on grounds that New York’s antitrust statute does not allow treble damage class actions and that a claim for unjust enrichment requires a direct relationship between the plaintiff and the defendant.

• Represented Chemtura Corporation in Bruce v. Crompton (Cal. Super. Ct. 2006) in which the Court denied class certification of an indirect purchaser class.

• Represented Chemtura Corporation in J&S Quality v. Crompton (N.J. Super Ct. 2005) in which the Court granted Chemtura’s motion to dismiss on grounds that neither New Jersey’s Antitrust Statute nor its Consumer Protection Statute allow damages actions by indirect purchasers.

• Represented Chemtura Corporation in Hunt v. Crompton (Pa. Commw. Ct. 2007) in which the Court denied class certification of an indirect purchaser class.

• Represented Chemtura Corporation in its dismissal from state court indirect purchaser price-fixing actions in the District of Columbia (Schnieder v. Crompton), Maine (Melhuish v. Crompton), Michigan (Edwards v. Crompton), North Dakota (Hockhalter v. Crompton), South Dakota (Frankenfeld v. Crompton) and Vermont (Warshow v. Crompton), on grounds that Chemtura did not have the constitutionally required minimum contacts with the state sufficient for it to be subject to suit there.

• Represented US Airways in multiple proceedings before the United States Department of Transportation on various matters including, international route authority proceedings, consumer protection investigations, certificate transfers, and airport access and slot proceedings.

Professional Activities

Law Clerk, Honorable Tena Campbell, U.S. District Court, District of Utah
Admitted, District of Columbia; California
Member, American Bar Association, Antitrust Section
Author, “Further Liberalization of the U.S. -- European Aviation Market is Probably on its Way, But When and in What Form?” The Transportation Update, ABA Section of Antitrust Law (Winter 2005)
Co-Author, “Final Descent? The Future of Antitrust Immunity in International Aviation”, Competition Policy International (September 2009), with Bimal Patel,  “ACPERA - Lasting Limits Or Fleeting Experiment?”, Competition Law 360 (March 2009, with Angela Wilks) 
Contributor, Antitrust Law Developments, ABA Section of Antitrust Law (6^th ed. 2007),
Chapter author, The Indirect Purchaser Handbook, American Bar Association (2007)