Illumina Secures Unprecedented Antitrust Trial Win in FTC’s Challenge to GRAIL Acquisition

On September 1, 2022, Chief Administrative Law Judge D. Michael Chappell of the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) ruled in favor of Cravath client Illumina, rejecting the FTC’s challenge to Illumina’s $8 billion acquisition of GRAIL, which closed in August 2021.

Cravath tried the matter for Illumina, a leader in DNA sequencing technology, in August and September 2021. The ALJ’s ruling in favor of Illumina rejected the FTC’s position that the deal would adversely affect competition in a putative market for multi-cancer early detection tests.

The ALJ decision is subject to appeal and review by the commission, and the final commission decision may be appealed to a U.S. Court of Appeals.

Cravath also represented Illumina on the underlying deal with GRAIL. More information on the deal is available here.

The Cravath team included partners Christine A. Varney, J. Wesley Earnhardt and Sharonmoyee Goswami; now retired partners Richard J. Stark and Darin A. McAtee; of counsels Jesse M. Weiss and Michael J. Zaken; senior attorney Marc J. Khadpe; practice area attorney Geoffrey G. Hu; and associates Allison N. Kempf, Alison A. Doyle, Arian Soroush, Benjamin A. Atlas, Retley G. Locke, Jr., Brent E. Bomkamp and Jessica X. Tong.