Antitrust Lawyer Blog

The Federal Trade Commission staff took action earlier this week to increase compliance with the Contact Lens Rule by sellers of non-corrective, decorative/cosmetic contact lenses. In 2003, Congress enacted the Fairness to Contact Lens Consumers Act, which imposed new prescription release and verification requirements on prescribers and sellers of contact lenses. In July 2004, the…

On June 28, the European Commission (“EC”) announced new guidelines that would increase fines for antitrust violations. This decision is part of an effort by the EC to more severely punish cartel leaders, repeat offenders, and companies whose large financial reserves made a mockery of the old antitrust fine scheme. The new guidelines, which will…

The Federal Trade Commission today called on social networking sites to make sure children visiting their sites can stay safe and their parents can protect them. Testifying for the FTC, Commissioner Pamela Jones Harbour told the House Committee on Energy and Commerce,Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation that there is a “need for social networking Web…

European Commissioner for Trade Peter Mandelson has launched a review of the Commission's anti-dumping measures. The review comes at a time when concerns have been raised that the Commission's anti-dumping measures do not always serve the interests of EU companies and consumers. Examples of this include quotas on Chinese textiles and anti-dumping tariffs imposed on…

On June 27, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments from Verizon Communications Inc., AT&T Inc., BellSouth Corp., and Qwest Communications International, Inc. in a case that may either help companies' efforts to fight off antitrust law suits, or promote consumers challenges to what appears to be illegal coordination of activities by competing companies…

On June 27, the Commission authorized the filing of comments, prepared jointly with the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division, with the New York State Assembly Committee on the Judiciary regarding proposed legislation to expand the scope of activities constituting the unauthorized practice of law. In the comments, the FTC and DOJ address Assembly Bill…

On June 27, the Department of Justice announced that it will require The McClatchy Company and Knight Ridder Inc. to divest the St. Paul Pioneer Press in order to proceed with their proposed multi-billion dollar newspaper merger. The DOJ said that the transaction, as originally proposed, would have eliminated head-to-head competition between McClatchy and Knight…

In 1996, Conway (then known as McLane) submitted a complaint to the Spanish Competition, the Servicio de Defencia de la Competencia (“SDC”) authorities, alleging that the former public tobacco monopoly, Tabacalera (now known as Altadis) abused its dominant position by not allowing Conway to distribute Tabacalera tobacco brands. A 2002 SDC decision found that Tabacalera…

On June 26, the United States Supreme Court declined to hear the Federal Trade Commission’s (“FTC”) appeal of the Eleventh Circuit’s decision that Schering-Plough Corp. (“Schering”) legally paid two generic drug competitors to stay out of the market as part of a settlement to patent litigation. In the past, the FTC has taken a consistently…

On June 26, orthopedic device manufacturers revealed the issuance of federal subpoenas tied to potential violation of antitrust law from the Department of Justice. Zimmer Holdings Inc., Biomet Inc., Johnson & Johnson and Stryker Corp. all said they had received subpoenas from the Antitrust Division demanding documents related to the manufacture and sale of the…