Matthew L. Cantor
Founding Partner
Matthew L. Cantor is well recognized as one of the premier antitrust litigators in the country, having led multiple teams in bet-the-business antitrust trials. He has also argued numerous notable antitrust appeals involving issues concerning market definition, market power, standing, evidentiary topics and class certification.
In particular, Matt is known for his deep expertise litigating matters and counseling clients on antitrust issues arising in the health services, financial services, technology, telecommunications and media/entertainment industries. Matt’s experience includes matters involving claims of price fixing, anticompetitive bundling/tying, monopolization and acts of unfair competition.
Matt has achieved superb results for his clients. In Sidibe et al. v. Sutter Health, he represents a class of millions of businesses and individuals that challenge a hospital system’s use of its dominance to drive up health care costs. In that case, Matt has successfully appeared in the Ninth Circuit three times, securing two reversals. His latest Ninth Circuit oral argument can be viewed here.
Matt has worked to secure more substantial judgments for his health care antitrust clients while also reversing unfavorable rulings. He represented a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson in an exclusionary bundling practices case against Amgen that resulted in a $200 million settlement for J&J. He secured a $40 million plaintiffs’ jury verdict for several radiology practices that charged a radiologist cartel with preventing them from treating insured patients. And he successfully represented retail pharmacies in cases brought against pharmaceutical benefit managers.
Matt has also helped his health care clients secure antitrust clearance for their transactions. Matt represented CareCore National, LLC — a provider of specialty benefit management services — in its acquisition of MedSolutions, Inc. — a direct competitor of these services.
In the financial services/electronic payments arena, Matt has helped his clients push back against the acts of dominant payment networks. He was on the lead counsel team for the plaintiffs in In re Visa Check/MasterMoney Antitrust Litigation, which resulted in a settlement valued at approximately $28 billion. He was co-lead counsel for Morgan Stanley/Discover in its Sherman Act Section 1 action against Visa and Mastercard, which resulted in a settlement for his clients of $2.75 billion. And he is currently representing numerous merchant clients charging that the setting of interchange fees by payment networks and their banks violates antitrust law.
Matt has also helped high-tech clients steer through the antitrust landscape. On the technology front, Matt has represented both parties and nonparties in litigation and advocated for them before the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general.
Finally, Matt has displayed his antitrust and telecommunications expertise by representing parties that own or wish to acquire substantial telephony assets and operations, cable properties, television broadcast stations, satellite television providers and video-programming services. He has also litigated matters involving the monopolization of telecommunications markets.
Litigation
- Sidibe et al. v. Sutter Health. Matt is lead trial counsel for a class of approximately 3 million employers and individuals who charge that Sutter, a large hospital system in Northern California, drove up hospital prices and, in turn, health insurance premiums paid by the class. He argued several times in this case before the Ninth Circuit, securing two reversals of judgments dismissing the case. Matt also convinced the Ninth Circuit to not disturb the class certification decisions that his team achieved.
- Stand-Up MRI v. CareCore National and related cases. Matt prosecuted a monthlong trial related to his clients’ claims that the owners of CareCore, an ostensible benefit manager, organized a group boycott preventing competitor diagnostic imaging providers from participating in large insurance company networks. The case resulted in a jury verdict in favor of his clients of approximately $40 million. Matt also tried another case against CareCore that resulted in a settlement.
- Brown v. Hartford HealthCare Corporation. Matt currently serves as co-lead counsel in a lawsuit on behalf of a putative class that claims that HHC’s “all or nothing” and anti-steering contract practices have caused hospital prices and insurance premiums in the state of Connecticut to skyrocket.
- In re Generic Drug Pricing Antitrust Litigation. Matt, on behalf of CVS, is prosecuting claims of price fixing and market allocation against approximately 20 generic drug companies that are alleged to have inflated the prices of their products through a wide-ranging conspiracy. The damages being asserted in this case are in the multibillions of dollars.
- Ortho Biotech v. Amgen. Matt prosecuted this case concerning Amgen’s practices that effectively forced cancer clinics to purchase all of their red and white blood cell booster drugs together, foreclosing his client, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson. This matter ultimately resolved by Amgen paying Matt’s client $200 million.
- TraceLink v. Healthcare Distribution Alliance. In 2018, Matt, on behalf of TraceLink, sued the HDA, a trade association owned by the largest wholesalers of pharmaceuticals, charging that the HDA and its members attempted to boycott TraceLink’s innovative products that track and trace the path of pharmaceuticals through the drug supply chain. This matter settled on the eve of oral argument scheduled on the defendant’s motion to dismiss.
- Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. v. Granite Communications. Matt successfully represented Nexstar on its claims under Section 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act, which concerned that Granite accrued five out of the six major network affiliations for its television stations in a particular television market. The matter settled after Granite’s motion to dismiss the case was defeated.
- Discover Financial v. Visa and Mastercard. Matt, along with Jeff Shinder (and Kirkland & Ellis LLP), served as co-lead counsel for Discover in its multibillion-dollar litigation against Visa and Mastercard. The case concerned rules that Visa and Mastercard imposed that prevented their member financial institutions from issuing Discover (or American Express) cards. The case resulted in a settlement of approximately $2.7 billion for Discover.
- In re Visa Check/MasterMoney Antitrust Litigation. Matt was part of the lead trial team in this landmark tying case, which concerned rules that Visa and Mastercard imposed on merchants, forcing them to accept Visa and Mastercard debit card transactions as a consequence of accepting their ubiquitous credit card transactions. The team prosecuting the case successfully certified the merchant class, defeated the payment network’s summary judgment motions and achieved partial summary judgment for the class. The matter settled after a jury was selected, providing the class with $3.4 billion in monetary relief and injunctive relief worth up to $28 billion.
Transactions
- The merger of CareCore and MedSolutions. Matt spearheaded the effort (along with Paul Weiss) that convinced the Antitrust Division to not challenge this merger between competitor medical benefits management companies.
- Various transactions on behalf of News Corp. For nearly a decade, Matt worked, on behalf of News Corp., to secure antitrust clearance of various deals that it engaged in, including its acquisition of television station owner Chris-Craft Industries and its sale of Fox Family Worldwide to the Walt Disney Company.
- Opposition to proposed merger between DirecTV, Inc. and EchoStar Communications. Matt advocated to various enforcement agencies that this transaction between the only two satellite television providers be enjoined. Following his advocacy, the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, the Federal Communications Commission and 23 offices of state attorneys general blocked the transaction.
Bar Admissions
New York
Eastern District of New York
Southern District of New York
Second Circuit Court of Appeals
Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals
Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
United States Supreme Court
Education
New York University School of Law, J.D. (1995)
University of Michigan, B.A., with high distinction (1992)
Recognition
Law360 Legal Lions (2024)
Super Lawyers (2012-2023)
Who’s Who Legal, US, Thought Leader; Global, Recommended (2023)
U.S. News & World Report, Best Lawyers (2019-2023)
Media Mentions
“Big Tech will face continued scrutiny under Trump,” The Hill (Nov. 12, 2024)
“Unions accuse UPMC of wielding market power against workers,” The New York Times (May 26, 2023)
“AT&T intensifies battle for Time Warner by targeting Trump role,” Bloomberg Law (Feb. 14, 2018)
“Federal judge blocks Aetna/Humana deal,” The Washington Post (Jan. 23, 2017)
“DOJ files suit, blocking two insurer deals; Aetna, Anthem to fight decision,” CNBC.com (July 22, 2016)
“Regulators tamp down on mergers of hospitals,” The New York Times (Dec. 18, 2015)
“Courts prove tough crowd for consolidating providers,” Modern Healthcare (Feb. 9, 2015)
“Partners/AG battle looms,” Boston Herald (Jan. 30, 2015)
“Supreme Court gives F.T.C. a win on hospital mergers,” The New York Times (Feb. 19, 2013)
“Cantor says antitrust suit is leverage for NFL players,” Bloomberg Law (March 24, 2011)
“Ticketmaster-Live Nation merger gets Justice Department approval,” Los Angeles Times (Jan. 26, 2010)
Events
Panelist, American Bar Association Antitrust Law Section conference on antitrust in health care (June 2024)
Panelist, American Antitrust Institute annual meeting on issues concerning health systems (November 2023)
Panelist, American Bar Association spring meeting (March 2023)
“Antitrust & Big Tech” panelist, Federal Bar Council seminar (June 2021)
Panelist, Class Action Money & Ethics Conference (May 2019)
New Street Research speaker on T-Mobile/Sprint merger (September 2019)
“Antitrust analysis of provider consolidation,” New Jersey Hospital Association meeting (September 2013)
Speeches
“Antitrust issues faced by accountable care organizations,” New Jersey Hospital Association meeting (March 2011)
“Antitrust class actions: Lessons from the US” (November 2007)
“Competition law enforcement and the media/telecommunications industry” (January 2007)
“Overview of antitrust/intellectual property intersect,” (with Jeffrey I. Shinder), In-House Counsel Forum on Pharmaceutical Antitrust (May 2005)
“The US merger review process,” (with Gordon Schnell) (June 2002)
Professional Associations
American Bar Association, Antitrust Section
New York State Bar Association, Antitrust Section
“Antitrust merger remedies should address potential ills,” (with Ankur Kapoor and Grant Petrosyan), Law360 (March 12, 2019)
“Benching Adam Smith: The increased use of price controls in antitrust remedies,” (with Daniel Vitelli), Bloomberg BNA (Nov. 7, 2014)
“Protect the little guy from ‘too big to fail,’” The Hill (Sept. 18, 2013)
“Antitrust ramifications of exclusivity in health care,” (with Axel Bernabe), BNA Antitrust & Trade Regulation Report (June 7, 2013)
“Antitrust implications of health care provider consolidation,” The National Law Journal (April 14, 2013)
“A watchful antitrust eye in healthcare,” BNA Antitrust & Trade Regulation Report (Dec. 7, 2012)
“Visa, returning to old ways, squelches competition in debit,” American Banker (June 26, 2012)
“Feedback: Interchange amendments are pro- not anti-consumer,” American Banker (May 24, 2010)
