Bonny E. Sweeney

Bonny Sweeney specializes in antitrust and unfair competition class action litigation.  She represents businesses and individuals in lawsuits challenging unlawful price-fixing, monopolization, false advertising and unfair and deceptive business practices.

Bonny E. Sweeney is a partner in the San Diego office of Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP, where she has specialized since 1996 in antitrust and unfair competition class action litigation. She is a former Chair of the Antitrust and Unfair Competition Law Section of the State Bar of California. Ms. Sweeney has been an Advisory Board Member of the American Antitrust Institute since 2004 and an Advisory Board Member of the Institute for Consumer Antitrust Studies, Loyola University, since 2009. In 2007, Ms. Sweeney was honored by Competition Law 360 in its “Outstanding Women in Antitrust” series.

Ms. Sweeney is co-lead counsel in several multi-district antitrust class actions pending in federal courts around the country, including In re Payment Card Interchange Fee and Merchant Discount Antitrust Litig. (E.D.N.Y.), In re Aftermarket Auto Lights Antitrust Litig. (C.D. Cal.), The Apple iPod iTunes Anti-Trust Litig. (N.D. Cal.), and In re Currency Conversion Fee Antitrust Litig. (S.D.N.Y.). In Currency Conversion, Ms. Sweeney helped recover $336 million for class members in a settlement that was recently granted final approval.

Ms. Sweeney was one of the trial lawyers in Law v. NCAA/Hall v. NCAA/Schreiber v. NCAA (D. Kan.), in which the jury awarded $67 million to three classes of college coaches. She has participated in the successful prosecution and settlement of numerous other antitrust and unfair competition cases, including In re LifeScan, Inc. Consumer Litig. (N.D. Cal.), which settled for $45 million; the Bank Privacy Cases (San Francisco Super. Ct.), which resulted in better bank privacy policies, funding to non-profit groups advocating for privacy rights, and benefits to credit cardholders; In re Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) Antitrust Litig. (N.D. Cal.), which settled for more than $300 million; In re NASDAQ Market-Makers Antitrust Litig. (S.D.N.Y.), which settled for $1.027 billion, and In re Airline Ticket Comm’n Antitrust Litig. (D. Minn.), which settled for more than $85 million.

A frequent lecturer on antitrust law, California’s unfair competition law, and complex litigation matters, Ms. Sweeney has published several articles, contributed to books and treatises, and testified before the California Judiciary Committee and the California Senate on these topics. Recent publications include Defining Antitrust Violations, PRIVATE ENFORCEMENT OF ANTITRUST LAW IN THE UNITED STATES: A HANDBOOK (Albert A. Foer and Randy M. Stutz, eds.) (forthcoming, 2011); Defining Antitrust Violations in the US, THE INTERNATIONAL HANDBOOK OF PRIVATE ANTITRUST ENFORCEMENT OF COMPETITION LAW (Albert A. Foer and Jonathan W. Cuneo, eds.) (Elgar, 2010); State Common Law Torts, Business Torts and Unfair Competition Law, ANTITRUST AND UNFAIR COMPETITION LAW TREATISE (4th ed., 2010) (co-author); THE NEXT ANTITRUST AGENDA: THE AMERICAN ANTITRUST INSTITUTE’S TRANSITION REPORT ON COMPETITION POLICY TO THE 44TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (Albert A. Foer, ed. 2008) (co-author); The ‘Federalization’ of the Cartwright Act, 17 COMPETITION 139 (Fall 2008); An Overview of Section 2 Enforcement and Developments, 2008 Wis. L. Rev. 231 (2008); Market Competitiveness: Does State Antitrust Law Need to be Updated? Statement Before California Senate Judiciary Committee, 14 COMPETITION (Spring/Summer 2005).

In 2003, Ms. Sweeney was honored with the Wiley M. Manuel Pro Bono Services Award and the San Diego Volunteer Lawyer Program Distinguished Service Award for her work on behalf of welfare applicants in Sanchez v. County of San Diego.

Ms. Sweeney graduated summa cum laude from Case Western Reserve University School of Law in 1988, where she served as editor of the Law Review and was elected to the Order of the Coif. She earned a Master of Arts degree from Cornell University in 1985, a Chinese Language Certificate from the Beijing Language Institute in 1982, and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Whittier College in 1981.

A litigator since 1988, Ms. Sweeney is admitted to practice before all courts in California and Massachusetts, and before the United States Supreme Court. She is a member of the Antitrust Section of the American Bar Association and the Antitrust and Unfair Competition Law Section of the California Bar Association.

Ms. Sweeney speaks Chinese (Mandarin).

Professional Affiliations

American Bar Association, Antitrust Section, Member

California Bar Association, Antitrust and Unfair Competition Law Section, Member

Honors & Awards

• Wiley M. Manuel Pro Bono Services Award, 2003
• San Diego Volunteer Lawyer Program Distinguished Service Award, 2003