In June 2026, social media giant TikTok (parent company ByteDance) reached a settlement in principle with a minor plaintiff from Florida, mere weeks before the case was scheduled to become “the second bellwether trial” in the vast body of social media addiction litigation pending in California. (Craig Clough, Law360). The preliminary settlement averted TikTok’s liability in the July jury trial and mirrored a similar exit deal the company made months earlier when it settled out of the first bellwether trial. (Olivia Carville and Alexandra S. Levine, Bloomberg). For a company that once relied on skeletal federal immunity principles to end such suits at the pleading stage, this new willingness to pay up marks a striking shift in strategy and position. (Brian Dowling, Bloomberg Law). This article aims to explain the past and present legal theories driving the litigation, outline the procedural history of the bellwether cases, and analyze what the duty-of-care and compliance implications for large tech defendants may be.

On October 14, 2022, Kroger and Albertsons Companies announced a proposed $24.6 billion merger that would have combined two of the largest supermarket chains in the United States (Alina Selyukh, NPR). The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”), joined by the District of Columbia and eight other states, filed an action in the United States District Court for the District of Oregon to block the proposed Albertsons acquisition under Section 7 of the Clayton Act, the federal antitrust statute barring mergers that may substantially lessen competition (Alina Selyukh, NPR). Colorado and Washington separately challenged the merger in their own state courts. Id. Federal and state courts halted the merger in December 2024, and the companies abandoned the transaction shortly thereafter, leaving Albertsons to pursue breach-of-contract claims in Delaware’s Court of Chancery against Kroger (Isaiah Poritz, Bloomberg Law). On July 1, 2026, Kroger announced a far smaller transaction: a $1.65 billion agreement to acquire regional grocer Giant Eagle, a deal that will add roughly 200 stores across five states to Kroger’s portfolio (The Kroger Co.). Using the Albertsons merger’s collapse as a backdrop, this post examines whether Kroger’s Giant Eagle acquisition can satisfy antitrust regulators by tracing why the Albertsons deal failed, weighing perspectives on Giant Eagle’s market impact, and forecasting how regulators will treat the new deal.

On June 15, 2026, Fox Corporation (“Fox”) announced it would acquire Roku, Inc. (“Roku”) (Fox Corp). The transaction combines Fox’s news, sports, and entertainment portfolio, including Tubi’s streaming service, with Roku’s connected-TV operating system, “the Roku Channel,” and a first-party data relationship that reaches over 100 million households globally. Id. Fox Executive Chair and CEO Lachlan Murdoch described the acquisition as a defining moment for Fox, continuing a streaming push that began with Fox’s acquisition of Tubi in 2020. Id. The deal is being financed, in part, by Morgan Stanley through $12 billion in bridge financing. (Al Barbarino, Law360). The deal is slated to close in the first half of 2027 after shareholder and regulatory approval. Id. While the transaction may appear to be an ordinary corporate acquisition, it presents a more consequential antitrust issue for regulators to grapple with. (Flavia Fortes, MLex). This post will examine the deal structure, then will analyze the core antitrust question: whether combining a content owner with a connected-TV gatekeeper gives the merged entity the incentive and ability to harm competitors that outweigh the deal’s claimed efficiencies.