AV&H Wins Newspaper Comics Case
On behalf of The Hartford Courant Company, AV&H successfully argued before the Connecticut Supreme Court that exclusive publishing arrangements are “presumptively lawful” under the antitrust laws -- an issue of first impression before the Court. A competing newspaper had claimed that the Hartford Courant’s exclusive publication of various Sunday comic strips was anticompetitive. Additionally, the case is a landmark decision setting the hurdles that a competitor must clear before obtaining pre-complaint discovery to support an antitrust complaint. Journal Publ'g Co. v. Hartford Courant Co., 261 Conn. 673 (2002).