Litigation

On December 11, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit unanimously affirmed the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California’s finding that Apple Inc. (“Apple”) committed civil contempt based on Apple’s willful violations of a permanent injunction that Cravath client Epic Games, Inc. (“Epic”) previously secured against Apple. The Court of Appeals affirmed several contempt sanctions imposed by the District Court against Apple, while modifying or reversing in part certain other sanctions and remanding to the District Court for further proceedings. The Court also unanimously affirmed the denial of Apple’s request to vacate or modify the permanent injunction based on recent California state court decisions and denied Apple’s request to reassign the case to a different district judge on remand.

On November 18, 2025, Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. (“Axalta”) and Akzo Nobel N.V. announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement to combine in an all‑stock merger of equals, creating a premier global coatings company with an enterprise value of approximately $25 billion. Cravath is representing Axalta in connection with the transaction.

On October 15, 2025, the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota granted Cravath client Louis Dreyfus Company LLC’s (“LDC”) motion to dismiss more than fifty lawsuits in consolidated antitrust litigation alleging a nationwide conspiracy to fix sugar prices.

On August 28, 2025, a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York unanimously concluded that Cravath clients American Express Company and American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc., (together, “Amex”) are not liable for antitrust claims in a class action suit, brought by a class of debit card users and non‑rewards credit card users from eight states and Washington, D.C., alleging that the company’s non‑discrimination provisions are anticompetitive.

On September 2, 2025, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York denied Loomis Sayles Trust Company’s (“LSTC”) motion for class certification in its breach of contract action against Cravath client Citigroup Global Markets Inc. (“Citigroup”).

On December 9, 2025, Cravath partner Gary A. Bornstein was featured as a 2025 Competition MVP by Law360, which highlighted his representation of Epic Games in separate antitrust lawsuits against Apple and Google, including securing a District Court decision that Apple violated an anti‑steering injunction, and a victory at the Ninth Circuit affirming Epic Games’ antitrust trial victory and permanent injunction against Google. In the profile, Gary discussed the satisfaction of winning difficult cases, explaining it’s “always a more gratifying victory when the outcome is not assured.” Gary also addressed the challenges of antitrust work, noting that antitrust issues are “company‑defining” and that “working as outside counsel on those cases is really counseling the senior people at the company on issues that go to the heart of their business. It requires you to have a commercial perspective on what's going on.” 

On December 6, 2025, Cravath partner Benjamin Gruenstein presented to The International Academy of Financial Crime Litigators, a collaboration between public- and private-sector litigation professionals and the Basel Institute on Governance that aims to promote worldwide access to solutions in cases of economic crime. Ben delivered a talk entitled “Evolving Standards for Sentence Reduction: Interpreting § 3582(c)(1)(A) Post-First Step Act,” in which he discussed developments in the law governing compassionate release, including his recent argument before the Supreme Court in Fernandez v. United States.

Cravath partner Nicole M. Argentieri participated in the American Conference Institute’s 42nd Annual Conference on FCPA and Global Anti‑Corruption, which was held from December 3‑4, 2025 in Washington, D.C. Nicole, who co‑chaired the conference, led a fireside chat with the Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division Matt Galeotti about the Division’s priorities and revised policies. Nicole also interviewed Emma Luxton, the Director of Operations for the UK Serious Fraud Office about recent updates to SFO’s corporates guidelines and case announcements, and introduced Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who gave his first speech on the state of white collar enforcement.

On November 28, 2025, Cravath’s antitrust practice was ranked among the “Elite” in Global Competition Review’s 2026 edition of GCR 100, a guide to the world’s best competition practices. This is the fourteenth consecutive year the Firm has been ranked in the highest tier among New York Firms by GCR. The publication highlighted Cravath as a “premier choice for major antitrust litigation, enforcement actions and high‑profile transactional matters,” noting its representations of clients including Corteva in antitrust litigation brought by the FTC and related putative class actions; Elsevier in putative class action antitrust litigation; Epic Systems in an action filed by Particle Health; and Wiz on antitrust matters in connection with its $32 billion acquisition by Google.

In November 2025, Global Investigations Review selected Cravath’s investigations practice for the GIR 100, a global guide to the world’s leading investigations practices, which recognizes the firms that can “handle sophisticated matters with confidence and expertise” and are “best equipped to navigate the legal, regulatory and reputational challenges of a corporate investigation.” Firms are selected through a combination of detailed submissions, client feedback and independent analysis.