Articles Posted in FTC Antitrust Highlights

The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) announced a law enforcement action on August 18 challenging a 2005 acquisition that combined the natural gas liquids (“NGL”) storage businesses of Enterprise Product Partners, L.P. and TEPPCO Partners, L.P. under common ownership. The FTC's complaint alleged that the transaction likely would result in higher prices and service degradations by…

The FTC and the Federal Reserve Board on August 7 issued a joint report to Congress on compliance with the consumer dispute provisions of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”). The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 (“FACT Act”), which generally amends the FCRA, required the FTC and the Board to conduct a…

A company and its owner selling contact lenses directly to consumers via three Web sites are settling Federal Trade Commission (“Commission” or “FTC”) charges they violated federal law by failing to verify consumers' prescriptions as required by the Commission's Contact Lens Rule. They will pay $40,000 in civil penalties and will be prohibited from violating…

By a unanimous vote, the Federal Trade Commission (“Commission” or “FTC”) determined on August 2 that computer technology developer Rambus, Inc. unlawfully monopolized the markets for four computer memory technologies incorporated into industry standards for dynamic random access memory (“DRAM”) chips. DRAMs are widely used in personal computers, servers, printers, and cameras. In an opinion…

Testifying on behalf of the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) before the U.S. Senate's Special Committee on Aging, Commissioner Jon Leibowitz described the FTC's work in the area of branded and generic pharmaceutical competition and discussed barriers that can lead to the delay of generic entry into the U.S. marketplace. Opening with a discussion of pharmaceutical…

On July 25, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC” or “Commission”) told the Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity of the House Financial Services Committee that changes in the real estate industry, which increasingly incorporate the Internet into their business models, give consumers “the choice to save potentially thousands of dollars in commissions in exchange for…

On July 18, the FTC announced that it reached a settlement that would allow Linde AG’s acquisition of the BOC Group to proceed. As is typical in merger reviews, the FTC staff focused on specific product overlaps to determine what assets needed to be divested to resolve the antitrust concerns. The Commission approved the merger…

On July 18, Britain's House of Lords overturned the Court of Appeal's decision in Inntrepreneur Pub Company and others v Crehan, the first case in which a UK court awarded damages for harm suffered as a result of a competition law infringement. As a result, there is now no longer any UK law precedent in…

Also on July 14, several parties asked the FCC to deny license transfers related to the proposed sale of Verizon Communications, Inc.'s (“Verizon”) Puerto Rico telecom assets – including the incumbent local exchange carrier and its second largest wireless service operator – to America Movil S.A. de C.V. (“American Movil”). Competitors are concerned that the…

On July 10, the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division announced that the third in a series of planned joint public hearings designed to examine the antitrust implications of single-firm conduct under the antitrust laws will take place on July 18, 2006, in Washington, DC. As previously announced, these public hearings…