🧩 Amazon's alleged auction proxy
PLUS: New York's $75B climate law is preempted, Lilly's up-to-$2.875B Phase 1 deal, and Weil adds two PE partners
September 1, 2026
Lookzy: all your daily legal news in 0.1 billable hours. Plain English coverage of deals, litigation and legal trends trusted by lawyers at Cravath, Latham, Skadden, Gunderson and elsewhere.
Welcome to Lookzy. In today's Lookzy:
The FTC says Amazon put its own bidder into ad auctions
New York's $75 billion climate law is preempted
Mississippi wants a new judge after AI errors
SLB agrees to buy Kelvion at a $4.1 billion transaction value
Kirkland takes Gibson Dunn's state-AG co-lead
THE VERDICT
Arguing today's litigation news
Alleged proxy bidder.
The FTC and 22 states accuse Amazon of secretly using proxy bids to inflate Sponsored Products ad prices. Regulators say this made advertisers pay their full bids nearly 80% of the time by 2024, costing them tens of billions. Amazon denies deception and says its system saved advertisers over $8 billion from 2021 through 2025. The FTC and 22 states sued in the Western District of Washington.
$75B climate law.
New York cannot enforce its Climate Change Superfund Act after Chief Judge Brenda Sannes held it preempted by the Clean Air Act in West Virginia v. James. The ruling keeps the law from imposing a total of $3 billion a year starting in 2028 on companies tied to more than one billion metric tons of covered greenhouse-gas emissions during 2000–2018, while the state reviews its next steps.
Perplexity in the order.
Mississippi asked the Fifth Circuit to reverse an injunction blocking state DEI restrictions and put the case before a new district judge. Judge Henry Wingate acknowledged that a clerk used Perplexity after his temporary restraining order cited fictitious names, authorities and statements; Mississippi says a later order included another AI-related citation error. Judge Jerry Smith asked, in an appeal that remains pending, how the court could trust that AI had not affected the reasoning.
THE DEAL
Wheelin' and dealin' today's corporate news
Kelvion at $4.1B.
Oilfield-services company SLB agreed to pay $3.4 billion cash and assume about $700 million of debt for Kelvion, which makes cooling systems for data centers and industrial customers. Apollo completed its Kelvion investment in January, seven months before announcing the sale.
Up to $2.875B.
Lilly agreed to pay up to $2.875 billion in cash for Merida Biosciences, whose lead autoimmune program is in Phase 1. The upfront payment and contingent milestones add up to that headline number, but Lilly did not disclose the split.
The 940p bid.
At 940p a share, Veritas Capital won Bodycote's board recommendation with 932.8p in cash while shareholders keep a 7.2p interim dividend. The offer has a £1.85 billion debt-inclusive value and carries an about 34.5% premium to Bodycote's share price before takeover speculation emerged in May. CVC had proposed 915p after Apollo left the process.
BOILERPLATE
Shah to Kirkland.
Kirkland hired Prerak “Pre” Shah from Gibson Dunn as a Houston litigation partner focused on state-attorney-general investigations; he co-led Gibson's state-AG practice and was acting U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas. His reported withdrawals cover Texas food-label and BlackRock state-AG matters.
Two PE partners.
Weil's San Francisco PE additions come from two places: Jonathan Stott was Dechert's local managing partner and West Coast PE lead; Michael Hanna was a Kirkland PE partner. Weil says 20 of its California partners now focus on private-equity clients.
Alright, back to billing. That's all, folks!
