Antitrust Lawyer Blog

On June 16, a U.S. appeals court affirmed the FCC’s most recent stab at spelling out local phone monopolies’ obligation to lease their networks to startup competitors at discounted prices. “The FCC is pleased that the court has upheld its pro-competitive rules governing network unbundling,” an FCC spokesman said in a statement. “The court’s decision…

On June 14, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported that the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) had asked the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) to revise its criteria in approving corporate mergers to encourage firms to reorganize and boost their competitiveness. Under current rules, the FTC allows mergers to proceed if the domestic market…

On June 14, the DOJ charged Gerald Thermos, the president of a marine products company in California with conspiring to rig bids and allocate customers with respect to the sale of foam-filled marine fenders and buoys purchased by the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Coast Guard, and other public and private entities. Foam-filled marine fenders are…

On June 14, McClatchy Co. announced that the Department of Justice is extending its review of the company’s sale of two California newspapers to MediaNews Group Inc. The two properties, the San Jose Mercury News and the Contra Costa Times, are part of a $1 billion three-way swap of four papers that also involves Hearst…

On June 14, the DOJ cleared Xstrata plc’s $14.64 billion offer for Falconbridge Ltd without issuing a second request.

The Federal Trade Commission today told a congressional subcommittee that, although the video game industry has made progress in complying with and improving its self-regulatory policies on the marketing of violent video games, more needs to be done. Lydia Parnes, Director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, told the House Committee on…

A seller of discount health and prescription drug cards and its telemarketer will pay civil penalties of $300,000 and $50,000, respectively, to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that they have been violating the Do Not Call (DNC) provisions of the Commission’s Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR), and will be prohibited from similar conduct in the future,…

The Federal Trade Commission today told the Senate Judiciary Committee that as the Committee considers legislation to amend the Communications Act, it should preserve the FTC’s existing authority to protect consumers and maintain competition in the broadband services industry.Delivering the FTC testimony, Commissioner William E. Kovacic said the agency believes it has jurisdiction over most…

The Federal Trade Commission today announced a set of final judgments and orders settling charges against two Florida-based principals and the corporations they ran for misleading consumers into believing they could earn up to $3,000 per week stuffing envelopes at home.While the consumers – many of whom had responded to misleading e-mail spam messages –…

On June 8, it was reported that the Chinese State Council had approved draft legislation of the so-called Antimonopoly Law. This legislation aims to provide a free and fair competitive environment to all enterprises. The new law, which is expected to be passed in March 2007, contains articles regulating monopoly agreements, abuse of dominant market…