A&O Shearman was formed in 2024 via the merger of two historic firms, Allen & Overy and Shearman & Sterling. With nearly 4,000 lawyers globally, we are equally fluent in English law, U.S. law and the laws of the world’s most dynamic markets.
This combination creates a new kind of law firm, one built to achieve unparalleled outcomes for our clients on their most complex, multijurisdictional matters – everywhere in the world. A firm that advises at the forefront of the forces changing the current of global business and that is unrivalled in its global strength.
Our clients benefit from the collective experience of teams who work with many of the world’s most influential companies and institutions, and have a history of precedent-setting innovations.
Together our lawyers advise more than a third of NYSE-listed businesses, a fifth of the NASDAQ and a notable proportion of the London Stock Exchange, the Euronext, Euronext Paris and the Tokyo and Hong Kong Stock Exchanges.
On June 25, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision by Justice Thomas, held that provisions in American Express Company's contracts with merchants that restricted the ability of these merchants...
On June 25, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision by
Justice Thomas, held that provisions in American Express
Company's contracts with merchants that restricted the ability
of these merchants to steer customers to other credit or charge
cards did not violate the Sherman Act. Ohio v. American
Express Co., 138 S. Ct. 2274, 2280 (2018). In doing so, the
Court recognized the importance of examining the effects on an
alleged restraint on both sides of a two-sided platform market.
This ruling has important implications for antitrust analysis,
not only for the credit card industry, but for other industries
that operate in two-sided, or even multi-sided platform markets
where firms must compete simultaneously for different groups of
customers whose demands are distinct but interrelated.
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