Antitrust Lawyer Blog

On March 6, 2009, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) ordered Whole Foods Market, Inc. (“Whole Foods”) to divest 32 Wild Oats Markets, Inc. (“Wild Oats”) stores and related assets, which will restore competition in 17 markets. Whole Foods is the largest premium natural and organic supermarket chain in the United States and Wild Oats is…

On March 4, 2009, the National Association of Music Merchants (“NAMM”) agreed to a Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) consent order settling charges of NAMM’s conduct that enhanced members’ ability to increase prices of musical instruments. NAMM is a trade association of U.S. manufacturers, distributors, and dealers of musical instruments. As a trade association, its purpose…

On March 2, 2009, President Obama appointed Jon Leibowitz as Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”). Mr. Leibowitz became a Commissioner at the FTC in September 2004. He was formerly the Democratic chief counsel and staff director for the U.S. Senate Antitrust Subcommittee from 1997 to 2000, focusing on competition policy and telecommunications matters.…

On February 26, 2009, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) intervened in Lubrizol Corporation’s (“Lubrizol”) 2007 acquisition of oxidate assets from its rival The Lockhart Company (“Lockhart”). On February 7, 2007, Lubrizol signed an asset purchase agreement with Lockhart to purchase Lockhart’s oxidate assets. Oxidate assets are chemical additives that are used to make rust preventives.…

On February 26, 2009, Christopher Tranchina, an employee of a company temporarily responsible for electrical utilities at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) designated Superfund site, Federal Creosote in Manville, NJ, pled guilty to defrauding the EPA at that site.According to the indictment, Mr. Tranchina and co-conspirators defrauded the EPA by inflating Federal Creosote invoices…

On February 20, 2009, JBS and National Beef announced the abandonment of the JBS/National Beef transaction. The Antitrust Division filed an antitrust lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Chicago to block the proposed acquisition, alleging that the deal would result in lower prices paid to cattle suppliers and higher beef prices for consumers. At…

On January 30, 2009, Peter Baci, a former executive at a freight service company, was sentenced to 48 months in jail and agreed to pay a criminal fine of $20,000. This sentence marks the longest jail sentence ever imposed for a single antitrust charge.On October 20, 2008, Mr. Baci pled guilty to his role in…

On January 29, 2009, Getinge AB (“Getinge”) settled charges with the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) in order for its $865 million acquisition of rival Datascope Corporation (“Datascope”) to proceed. The FTC believed that the proposed acquisition violated federal antitrust laws. Datascope is required to divest its endoscopic vessel harvesting (“EVH”) product line to an FTC…

During the week of January 26, 2009, IBM Inc. (“IBM”) and Microsoft Corporation Inc. (“Microsoft”) were separately accused of “tying” or “bundling” their products, in effect abusing their market dominant position, a violation of Article 82 of the European Community Treaty.“Tying” or “bundling” products occurs when the sale of one product is conditional on the…

On January 23, 2009, Dow Chemical Company (“Dow”) settled charges with the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) in order for its $18.8 million acquisition of rival Rohm & Haas Company (“R&H”) to proceed. Dow agreed to sell a range of assets to an FTC approved buyer and put in place mechanisms to ensure Dow will not…