Kenneth Kliebard

AmLaw Litigation Daily featured partners Zachary Johns, Steven Reed, R. Brendan Fee, and Kenneth Kliebard, and associate Vincent Papa as Litigator of the Week Runners-Up for their work securing the exclusion of a damages expert and the denial of class certification on behalf of healthcare system Aspirus Inc. in a price-fixing lawsuit. Read the full AmLaw Litigation Daily article >> Subscription may be required. 

In a unanimous 9-0 decision authored by Justice Breyer, the US Supreme Court has held that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) lacks the authority to seek equitable monetary relief in cases brought in federal court under FTC Act Section 13(b). The Court’s April 22, 2021, decision in AMG Capital Management, LLC v. Federal Trade Commission has significant implications for the FTC and for the companies and industries whose practices the FTC challenges.

For decades, the Federal Trade Commission has invoked Section 13(b) of the Federal Trade Commission Act to file suit in federal court in pursuit of both injunctive relief and equitable monetary relief. On July 9, the US Supreme Court granted certiorari and consolidated two cases—AMG Capital Management, LLC v. Federal Trade Commission and Federal Trade Commission v. Credit Bureau Center, LLC—that call into question the Commission’s authority to seek equitable monetary relief in Section 13(b) cases.