Antitrust Lawyer Blog

On May 2, AT&T Inc. (“AT&T”) and BellSouth Corp. (“BellSouth”) confirmed that the DOJ had issued a second request with respect to AT&T’s nearly $90 billion acquisition of BellSouth. This transaction will make AT&T the dominant phone carrier in 22 states and comes on the heels of two other large telecom deals and amid growing…

Speaking to the Tennessee Telecommunications Association on May 2, FCC Commissioner Deborah T. Tate said that any revamping of the 1996 Telecommunications Act should include language that permits the government to play a limited role in creating fair rules, while allowing the marketplace to drive industry development and innovation in such areas as broadband and…

Also on April 28, the Commission approved the publication of a notice of proposed rulemaking in the Federal Register that would amend the Telemarketing Sales Rule to revise the fees charged for industry access to the National Do Not Call Registry. The FTC is currently accepting comments on these proposed fee changes. Under the proposed…

On April 28, the Federal Trade Commission (“Commission”) authorized the staffs of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, Bureau of Economics and Office of Policy Planning to file comments with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) concerning the FDA’s recently issued draft guidance for industry and agency staff on labeling statements about the whole grain…

On April 28, the Federal Trade Commission (“Commission”) authorized the staffs of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, Bureau of Economics and the Office of Policy Planning to file comments with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) concerning the FDA’s recently issued draft guidance for industry and agency staff on labeling statements about the whole…

On April 28, the Federal Trade Commission approved the publication of a notice of proposed rulemaking in the Federal Register that would amend the Telemarketing Sales Rule to revise the fees charged for industry access to the National Do Not Call Registry. The FTC is currently accepting comments on these proposed fee changes. Under the…

On April 27, the DOJ announced that Assistant Attorney General Thomas O. Barnett will participate in the fifth annual International Competition Network (“ICN”) Conference in Cape Town, South Africa, on May 3-5, 2006. At the conference, senior antitrust officials and private antitrust experts from around the world as well as representatives from intergovernmental organizations will…

On April 27, the DOJ announced Hughey Inc., which does business as Carmel Concrete Products (“Carmel”), and its president, Scott D. Hughey agreed to plead guilty and pay criminal fines for fixing the price of ready mixed concrete in the Indianapolis metropolitan area. Under the plea agreement, which must be approved by the court, Carmel…

On April 24th, the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Competition issued a summary of agreements filed with the Commission in fiscal year 2005 (ending September 30, 2005) by generic and branded drug manufacturers. The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 requires drug companies to file certain agreements with the FTC and the…

On April 20th, the Federal Trade Commission announced a consent agreement that will protect competition and consumers in several significant medical device markets affected by Boston Scientific’s proposed $27 billion acquisition of the Guidant Corporation (“Guidant”). The agreement will allow the transaction to proceed, provided the parties comply fully with its terms.Under the terms of…