Antitrust Lawyer Blog

On March 12, Kmart Corporation agreed to settle FTC’s charges that it engaged in deceptive practices in advertising and selling its Kmart gift card. Kmart will implement a refund program and publicize it on its Web site. This is the agency’s first law enforcement action involving gift cards. According to the FTC’s complaint, Kmart promoted…

On March 9, the FTC approved an application for a proposed divestiture from Linde AG and The BOC Group plc concerning an August 29, 2006, FTC consent order regarding the acquisition of BOC by Linde. Under the terms of the order, the parties were required, among other things, to divest the relevant “Atmospheric Gases Assets”…

On March 6, the FTC received a supplemental petition from Service Corporation International (“SCI”) and Alderwoods Group, Inc. seeking approval of a proposed divestiture related to SCI’s recent acquisition of Alderwoods. The FTC’s agreement and order required SCI and Alderwoods to divest a range of funeral home and cemetery services companies in order to guarantee…

On February 28, Nicholas C. Albert, an affiliate Webmaster who used the allure of “free” music downloads to spread malicious computer code, is settling FTC charges he violated federal law. The defendant, who was paid to distribute the code by the company that developed it, will give up all of his ill-gotten gains and is…

On February 27, the FTC approved a petition from General Dynamics Corporation (“General Dynamics”) to divest its 50% interest in American Ordinance LLC (“AO”). The divestiture was required to maintain competition in the U.S. and Canadian markets for melt-pour load, assemble, and pack (“LAP”) services. Through its petition, General Dynamics requested Commission approval to divest…

On February 23, the Commission approved an application for divestiture from Dan L. Duncan (“Duncan”); EPCO, Inc. (“EPCO”); Texas Eastern Products Pipeline Company, LLC; and TEPPCO Partners, L.P. (together “TEPPCO”), concerning a 2006 FTC order related to TEPPCO’s interest in the Mont Belvieu Storage Partners, L.P. (“MBSP”). Under the terms of the FTC decision and…

On February 21, Robert Taylor, the former president of a Clearbrook, Virginia marine products company agreed to plead guilty for his participation in two separate conspiracies to rig bids and allocate customers with respect to marine products purchased by the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Coast Guard, and other public and private entities. Mr. Taylor was…

On February 20, the DOJ announced Mittal Steel Company N.V. must divest its Sparrows Point facility, located near Baltimore, Maryland to remedy the competitive harm arising from Mittal’s $33 billion acquisition of Arcelor S.A. On Aug. 1, 2006, the Antitrust Division entered into a settlement agreement with Mittal and Arcerlor that provided for various options…

On February 16, the Commission received a petition from Service Corporation International (“SCI”) and Alderwoods Group, Inc. seeking approval of a proposed divestiture related to SCI’s recent acquisition of Alderwoods. The FTC’s consent agreement and order required that SCI and Alderwoods divest a range of funeral home and cemetery service companies. Through this petition, the…

On February 9, the FTC received a petition for approval of a proposed divestiture from Thermo Electron Corporation. Under the order, Thermo was required to divest the high-performance centrifugal vacuum evaporators (“CVE”s) assets to a Commission-approved buyer. In the petition, Thermo requested FTC approval to divest the CVE assets to Riverlake Partners, L.P. (Riverlake) and,…