Jessica R. Maziarz

Antitrust Litigation & Counseling

Jessica has significant experience representing business clients in antitrust litigation. She especially enjoys litigation involving price-fixing conspiracies, cartel activities, trade association and group membership, monopolization, and attempted monopolization. Jessica also counsels clients on antitrust and competition law compliance and provides employee training, including on minimum advertising pricing policies (MAP policies), competitor communications, information exchanges, and trade association and industry group activities. Her representative experience includes:

• Defending eight affiliated dental health insurance plans in pending MDL proceedings brought by dental providers across the country challenging certain business practices and agreements as anticompetitive under the Sherman Act on theories of alleged territorial market division, price-fixing, and monopsony power. In re Delta Dental Antitrust Litigation, MDL No. 2931.
• Defended universally recognized guitar and amplifier manufacturers in antitrust class action lawsuit alleging “hub and spoke” conspiracy to implement and enforce minimum advertised price policies. The Ninth Circuit’s opinion affirming dismissal remains a leading case addressing the sufficiency of antitrust pleadings. In re Musical Instruments & Equip. Antitrust Litig., 798 F.3d 1186 (9th Cir. 2015).
• Represented equestrian sport organizers and pursued monopolization counterclaims against individuals and entities involved in holding and promoting equestrian sport competitions in Wellington, Florida. Defeated two motions to dismiss antitrust counterclaims, leading to pre-trial resolution.
• Represented purchaser in connection with class action antitrust litigation regarding alleged price-fixing conspiracy facilitated by trade group membership and related to a highly concentrated market.
• Represented manufacturing purchaser in Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (HKIAC) dispute relating to alleged agreement to fix prices of commodity product.

Class Action Defense

Jessica litigates putative class actions in state and federal courts throughout the country, with particular experience in courts within the Ninth Circuit. Frequently defending consumer-facing class actions, Jessica and her team are experienced with various state consumer protection and consumer fraud statutes, including the UCL (California’s Unfair Competition Law), FAL (California’s False Advertising Law), CLRA (California’s Consumer Legal Remedies Act), NDTPA (Nevada’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act), FDUTPA (Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act) and New York’s General Business Law. In addition to the antitrust class actions featured above, Jessica’s representative experience includes:

• Obtaining dismissal at the motion to dismiss stage of MDL class action brought by 43 named plaintiffs alleging 57 causes of action against a manufacturer of child booster seats for consumer protection and warranty claims relating to product representations and labeling under the laws of 28 states.
• Defended nutraceutical company facing nationwide consumer class action claims under California consumer protection laws relating to labeling and advertising representations on biotin products. Class certification denied.
• Represented nonjudicial foreclosure trustee owned by one of the largest U.S. banks and won dismissal, affirmed in a precedential opinion by a unanimous Nevada Supreme Court, of a putative class action seeking damages in excess of $300 million and alleging consumer fraud for unlicensed debt collection activities by pursuing nonjudicial foreclosures. Benko v. Quality Loan Serv. Corp., 454 P.3d 1263 (Nev. 2019).
• Obtained dismissal and summary judgment on behalf of one of the United States’ largest food and beverage companies in state and federal class actions based on California and Florida consumer protection statutes alleging deceptive marketing practices and mislabeling of coconut water products based on alleged laboratory testing by third party and publicized internet report.
• Defended managed-care organizations against class action claims by patients for medical monitoring following hepatitis C outbreak at provider facility.
• Defended waste hauler against putative class action alleging violation of California’s UCL for unfair business practices based on account classification and fee charges.
• Defended marketing companies against class action and individual claims for alleged violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and similar state law claims.

Post-M&A Disputes & Contractual Litigation

A meticulous analyst of contracts, Jessica combines her attention to contractual details and litigation acumen to advance compelling strategies, positions, and arguments in high-stakes and high-dollar breach of contract litigation. She evaluates litigation positions and contractual interpretations in contracts, including master purchase agreements, statements of work, merger agreements, acquisition agreements, separation agreements, asset purchase agreements, supplier agreements, land purchase agreements, transition services agreements and licensing agreements. Jessica especially enjoys the intellectual challenge inherent in dismantling and countering the contractual interpretations espoused by adversaries. Her representative experience includes:

• Defending energy company against high-stakes federal court claims seeking nearly $350 million in damages relating to $800 million acquisition of crude oil provider and associated agreements and transactions.
• Following $50 million transaction, represented homebuilding company in federal court suit seeking more than $40 million in lost profits from acquired homebuilder for breach of several contractual agreements, including asset purchase agreement, land purchase agreement, transition services agreement, trademark assignment agreement and copyright assignment agreement.
• Secured summary judgment and a $1.4 million attorneys’ fee award on behalf of large retailer in a lawsuit brought by HVAC company seeking nearly $25 million in damages, including more than $20 million in lost revenues, for breach of contract and breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing in master service agreement and statement of work.
• Successfully defended communications technology company against breach of contract claims by cloud-based provider seeking damages in excess of $10 million, and prosecuted breach of contract counterclaims relating to reseller agreement and statement of work in JAMS arbitration.
• Following acquisition of restaurant group, defended hospitality industry client against multimillion dollar claims for breach of asset purchase agreement relating to earnout provision in International Centre for Dispute Resolution (ICDR) arbitration.

Personal Interests

In her spare time, you will find Jessica enjoying outdoor activities such as kayaking, hiking, beach combing and volunteering with children at an outdoor forest school.