Axinn Wins Newspaper Comics Case
January 1, 2002
On behalf of The Hartford Courant Company, Axinn 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).