FTC: Watch articles from February 2000

FTC: Watch archives from February 2000

The Microsoft monoculture: your tax dollars at work.(Brief Article)
February 14, 2000... The Justice Department says Microsoft has a monopoly in the desktop computer operationg systems market. The Justice Dept. should know. It's a Microsoft monopoly itself: The FBI has 24,000 PCs, the INS has 23,833, the U.S. Marshalls...

Senate reauthorization hearing focuses on HSR reform and budget authority.(Brief Article)
February 14, 2000... The filing thresholds and fees proposed in the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act bill (S. 1854) do not reflect the different levels of agency effort and resources required to review different size mergers, FTC Commissioner Thomas...

Stevens blasts FTC's BP Amoco/ARCO merger challenge.(Atlantic Richfield Co.)(BP Amoco PLC)(United States. Federal Trade Commission)(Brief Article)
February 14, 2000... Alaska faces bankruptcy if the FTC delays the BP/Amoco - ARCO deal for 3-4 years, thundered Republican Alaska Senator Ted Stevens at the FTC Reauthorization hearings on February 9. Although not a Senate Commerce Committee member, Stevens...

Pitofsky: Global E-commerce in trouble; FTC to cohost dispute resolution workshop.(Brief Article)
February 14, 2000... The biggest challenges now facing e-commerce are online fraud, online privacy and choice of law in cross-border transaction disputes, according to FTC Chairman Robert Pitofsky. Electronic commerce holds great promise for being a profoundly...

FTC 2000 Online Privacy Survey : 21 Congressmen ask FTC to confirm it won't regulate the web.(Brief Article)
February 14, 2000... The FTC is launching another survey of commercial U.S. Web sites later this month- to see how well they are self-regulating online privacy. The survey, the third in less than two years, will help inform agency recommendations to Congress this...

Online privacy advisory committee flap: typical Beltway baloney.(Brief Article)
February 14, 2000... Those uneasy about the FTC's new Online Privacy Advisory Committee's purpose fear the committee's report -- due out May 15 -- together with the FTC online privacy survey results "will become grist for a shift in the FTC's attitude toward online...

Surging complaints about online auction fraud prompt co-ordinated law enforcement.(Brief Article)
February 14, 2000... The FTC received more than 10,000 online auction fraud complaints In 1999, said the agency, and they ain't gonna take it sitting down. As FTC: WATCH went to press, the agency was planning a press conference on February 14 to announce...

FTC hands Justice Dept its latest FOIA report.(Brief Article)
February 14, 2000... More than 70% of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests received by the FTC were completed within 20 days, boasted the FTC's annual report detailing compliance with FOIA during fiscal year 1999. The response time for requests...

FTC updates Jewelry brochures in time for Valentine's Day.(Brief Article)
February 14, 2000... The FTC released two updated jewelry shopping consumer and business guides just before the Valentine weekend rush to purchase sparkling symbols d'amour. "All That Glitters...How to Buy Jewelry" gives useful facts about precious metals,...

Scholarscam 2000 Internet surf.(Brief Article)
February 14, 2000... The FTC turned up thirty-seven web sites touting suspicious scholarship claims in its latest Internet "surf day," "Scholarscam 2000," that targeted sites advertising college scholarship services. Two previous scholarship sweeps in 1996 and...

Sorry, judge.(Judge James P. Timony)(Brief Article)(Correction Notice)
February 14, 2000... Sorry, judge: In No. 53 7, in the course of reporting the FTC Commissioners' inability to sort out the agency's Trans Union case, we may have inadvertently left the impression that Administrative Law Judge James P. Timony had dawdled over the...

From the FTC FOIA files.(Brief Article)
February 14, 2000... From the FTC FOIA files: U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has asked agencies under the jurisdiction of the Senate Commerce Committee, which he chairs, to search their files for copies of his correspondence with them over the years. The FTC...

McCormick says it settles.(McCormick and Co.)(Brief Article)
February 14, 2000... McCormick says it settles: McCormick & Company, Inc. says it "has signed a settlement agreement negotiated with the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Competition to resolve the Commission's price discrimination claims under the...

Amazon.com.(Brief Article)
February 14, 2000... Amazon.com has told the SEC that its "wholly-owned subsidiary, Alexa Internet, [which] develops and distributes software that facilitates Web navigation.., is the subject of two pending lawsuits and an informal information review by the US...

Microsoft overseas.(Brief Article)
February 14, 2000... Microsoft overseas: Reuters News Service reported February 14 that a Swiss official "charged with monitoring prices" is investigating allegations that Microsoft charges different prices for its Windows[TM] operating system, its Office 97...

Merger Watch.(Brief Article)
February 14, 2000... Merger Watch: Antitrust review of the AOL/ Time Warner deal will be carried out by the FTC. The proposed Dow/Union Carbide merger continues to encounter antitrust problems at the FTC. Some product markets would end up with fairly high...

Joint venture guidelines.(Brief Article)
February 14, 2000... Joint venture guidelines: the FTC/DOJ draft Antitrust Guidelines for Collaborations Among Competitors are generally "high quality," but nonetheless imperfect, says the American Antitrust Institute. Among other things, aai tells the...

Justice OKs multispecialty behavioral health care provider network.(Brief Article)
February 14, 2000... A two and a half year old request for a business review letter to then-Assistant Attorney General Anne K. Bingaman may have been worth the wait. Midwest Behavioral Healthcare has won an assurance from her successor, AAG Joel I. Klein, that its...

FTC authorizes staff to seek injunction blocking BP Amoco's acquisition of ARCO.(BP Amoco PLC)(Atlantic Richfield Co.)(Brief Article)
February 14, 2000... Although Commissioners Orson Swindle and Thomas Leary say they objected to the FTC going into court at this moment to block BP Amoco's acquisition of ARCO, the agency's Complaint says that, "Defendant BP has advised the Commission that, in the...

Screen Test scam defendants banned from hyping youthful talent.(Screen Test U.S.A.)(Brief Article)
February 14, 2000... An interstate model and talent operation must hand over $972,000 and stop marketing and selling "screen test services" to settle FTC allegations they misled consumers into thinking their kids were in with a chance of being runaway child stars...

ATM bank card marketer out $250,000 for allegedly misleading benefits recipients.(Brief Article)
February 14, 2000... Marketers of an automated teller machine (ATM) bank card will cough up $250,000 in consumer redress to settle FTC allegations that it misled Social Security recipients into thinking they had the U.S. government seal of approval and wouldn't...

Last defendant in gemstone investment fraud case settles.(United States Federal Trade Commission litigation with Siri Ram Singh Khalsa)(Brief Article)
February 14, 2000... Siri Ram Singh Khalsa will stop selling investment opportunities or collectible artifacts to settle FTC charges he misrepresented the market value and investment potential of gemstones. The case stems from a 1997 FTC law enforcement sweep...

Ladies' gowns manufacturer settles care labeling charges.(United States Federal Trade Commission litigation with Nahdree Group)(Brief Article)
February 14, 2000... A maker of women's evening and special occasion wear will hand over $10,000 to settle FTC charges it violated the agency's Care Labeling Rule by using labels stating "Dryclean Only by Zurcion Method." The order required Nahdree Group to...

Exxon Mobil asks FTC to approve 3 sales.(United States Federal Trade Commission case with Exxon Mobil Corp.)(Brief Article)
February 14, 2000... Exxon Mobil Corporation applied to the FTC for approval of three transactions related to its divestiture settlement [FTC: WATCH No. 534, December 6]. First, the oil giant asked for Commission approval to assign Mobil's existing supply...

General Nutrition's petition denied.(Brief Article)
February 14, 2000... The Commission voted 5-0 on January 31 to deny General Nutrition Center's (GNC) request that the Commission reopen and modify a 1989 cease and desist FTC order-- and denied in part and granted in part the modification of a 1969 order [FTC:...

MacDermid/Polyfibron Tech. order final.(MacDermid Inc., Polyfibron Technologies Inc., litigation)(Brief Article)
February 14, 2000... MacDermid, Inc. and Polyfibron Technologies, Inc. must divest Polyfibron's liquid photopolymer business, terminate photopolymer distribution arrangements and stay clear of anticompetitive agreements with other photopolymer manufacturers [FTC:...

New defendant in atariz.com complaint.(Gregory Lasrado, United States Federal Trade Commission, cases)(Brief Article)
February 14, 2000... The Commission has voted to add Gregory Lasrado as a defendant in the atariz.com complaint -- the 100th FTC action against internet fraud [FTC: WATCH No. 529, September 27]. International defendants from Portugal and Australia cloned 25...

FTC orders with 6 car dealerships final.(United States Federal Traded Commission, litigation)(Brief Article)
February 14, 2000... The FTC made final its orders requiring six Philadelphia car dealerships and their owners to clearly and accurately disclose costs in their lease and credit ads [FTC: WATCH No. 534 December 6]. Dunphy Nissan, Inc.; Marty Sussman Organization,...

Calendar.
February 14, 2000... February 17 - FTC Chairman Robert Pitofsky will participate as a guest speaker at a Breakfast Roundtable Series under the sponsorship of the Center for the Study of International Business Law, Brooklyn Law School, at the University Club, New...

David R. Thomas.(appointment at United States Federal Trade Commission)(Brief Article)
February 14, 2000... David R. Thomas joins the FTC as director of its Office of Congressional Relations, replacing Lorraine Miller, who has joined the Federal Communications Commission. Thomas has experience as an aide to former Sen. Howard Metzenbaum (D-Ohio) and...

In FTC:WATCH No. 536 (January 17), we told you that Casey Triggs had returned.(United States Federal Trade Commission, appointments)(Brief Article)
February 14, 2000... In FTC:WATCH No. 536 (January 17), we told you that Casey Triggs had returned to the trial staff after a stint as deputy assistant director in the FTC Competition Bureau's Mergers I unit. Scratch that. He's already moved on to be an attorney...

New members of the American Antitrust Institute's Advisory Board: Notre Dame University Law Prof. Joseph Bauer.(and Michael Freed)(Brief Article)
February 14, 2000... New members of the American Antitrust Institute's Advisory Board: Notre Dame University Law Prof. Joseph Bauer and Much Shelist Freed Denenberg Ament & Rubenstein partner Michael Freed. Bauer is the editor of the 11 volume Kintner text on...

Former FTC economist Douglas C. Dobson.(United States Federal Trade Commission, opens economic consulting firm)(Brief Article)
February 14, 2000... Former FTC economist Douglas C. Dobson has formed a new economic consulting fir,, Competition Analysis, LLC. Dobson was an assistant director of the FTC's Economics Bureau before Joining Charles River Associates and later, the Brattle Group, as...

Former FTC trial attorney Joel M. Mitnick.(United States Federal Trade Commission, joins Brown and Wood L.L.P.)(Brief Article)
February 14, 2000... Former FTC trial attorney Joel M. Mitnick has joined Brown & Wood LLP as a partner. An attorney advisor to Commissioner Patricia P. Bailey during the 1980's, Mitnick arrives at Brown & Wood from Skadden, Arps, et al.

Boast on FTC v. Mylan and agency's antitrust disgorgement case criteria.
February 28, 2000... "There was considerable consternation when the Mylan decision came out, that the Commission would be on a disgorgement warpath for the next ten years, but that hash 't occurred." FTC Competition Bureau Senior Deputy Director Molly Boast. ...

Short term exclusive dealing warrants consideration, says Competition Bureau official.(Brief Article)
February 28, 2000... Partial short-term or incentive-based exclusive dealing can present anticompetitive concerns, Competition Bureau Deputy Director Will Tom has told a Practicing Law Institute audience in New York-- but there are no government cases to illustrate...

International Advisory Committee to offer Reno and Klein concrete proposals.(Brief Article)
February 28, 2000... By the time you read this, the International Competition Advisory Committee (ICPAC) will probably have handed Attorney General Janet Reno and Assistant Attorney General Joel Klein concrete proposals for promoting competition in increasingly...

FTC proposes Financial Privacy Rule: Just how public is public information and what are non-traditional financial activities?
February 28, 2000... The FTC has proposed a Financial Privacy Rule to implement the financial privacy provisions for non-banking financial institutions mandated by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. The Act revisited depression era banking laws, directing the FTC,...

FTC staff to Virginia: do you need extra conditions for electricity RTEs?(Brief Article)
February 28, 2000... Why not try the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC) minimum requirements for transmission entities (RTE) before adding state-specific conditions when you implement the RTE provisions of the Virginia Electric Utility Restructuring Act?...

How have 5 years of the Telemarketing Sales Rule changed your life?(Brief Article)
February 28, 2000... The FTC wants diverse general feedback on whether the Commission's Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR) has made much of a dent on telemarketing fraud. The TSR was mandated by Congress in the Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention...

700,000 victims: Bernstein to tell Senate if Identity Theft Act is working.(Brief Article)
February 28, 2000... The FTC has launched a tri-level campaign to help contain identity theft: a consumer complaint and information service, consumer education booklet and complaint data sharing with relevant law enforcers. Despite enactment of the Identity...

FTC's 2nd consumer protection week highlights internet fraud.(Brief Article)
February 28, 2000... The FTC's second annual Consumer Protection Week (February 14-21) focused on "Shopping Safely from Home" and recounted dozens of joint federal-state law enforcement actions against less-than-honest online auctioneers. The agency received...

How to make the FTC a household name? Put "FTC" on appliance energy guide labels.(Brief Article)
February 28, 2000... Makers of household appliances must now include "Federal Trade Commission" on all EnergyGuide labels so that everyone knows just which federal agency enforces the Appliance Labeling Rule requiring household appliances to have EnergyGuide labels...

Pitofsky outlines the case for rejecting some complex merger settlements.(Brief Article)
February 28, 2000... "[T]here is no more important set of policy questions facing the antitrust community than defining the nature and limits of appropriate restructuring in merger review," FTC Chairman Robert Pitofsky told a crowded session of a program on Cutting...

Bringing restructuring out of the closet.(FTC Chairman Robert Pitofsky)
February 28, 2000... In what may prove to be one of the most influential speeches of his chairmanship, the FTC's Robert Pitofsky told a New York audience recently that "[T]here is no more important set of policy questions facing the antitrust community than...

Beware the "lemming effect" : AAI says Antitrust Division should block Alcoa/Reynolds merger.(American Antitrust Institute )
February 28, 2000... American Antitrust Institute President Albert Foer says that after "studying the public record and consulting with experts in the aluminum industry in order to understand the competitive impact of the proposed acquisition of the Reynolds Metals...

Advertising law: sweaters, spammers and slick book covers.
February 28, 2000... Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon has sued Benetton Inc., for fraud and trespassing in connection with the company's use of Missouri death-row inmates in its advertising campaign. Nixon says that Benetton snookered the Missouri Department...

You can't hide anywhere these days : George W. Bush on antitrust.(Brief Article)
February 28, 2000... FTC Chairman Robert Pitofsky's February 17 speech on merger analysis in New York City drew two distinct audiences: antitrust lawyers and the Wall Street risk arbitrage community. The latter pretty much disregarded the rest of the program,...

Mixed review: SBC bid to enter Texas LD market nixed by DOJ despite "progress".(SBC Communications Inc)(Brief Article)
February 28, 2000... SBC Communications Inc. has made commendable progress, but has not yet shown that the Texas market in which it already supplies local telephone and other telecom services is sufficiently open to competition to warrant approval of its plans to...

DOJ forces towing technology licensing to remedy two acquisitions of competitors.(Brief Article)
February 28, 2000... Miller Industries Inc. acquired Vulcan Equipment Inc. in September 1996 and followed the next year with the acquisition of Chevron Inc. And the two acquisitions, the Justice Department has now charged in federal court "lessened competition in...

Speech Available:.(Brief Article)
February 28, 2000... "Antitrust, Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Small Business," speech by Adam Golodner, Antitrust Division Chief of Staff before the SBA Conference on Industrial Organization [January 21, 2000.]. Golodner points out how important strong...

FTC revisits Compaq consent order : Swindle questions 'affirmative need threshold' in order modifications.(Brief Article)
February 28, 2000... The Commission has modified an existing consent order with Digital Equipment Corp. (succeeded by Compaq Computer Corp.) entered when Compaq acquired Digital's microprocessor chip business. Compaq asked the Commission to modify Paragraph II...

Mail and Phone Order Rule applies to Internet : Beanie Baby company pays $216,000 for allegedly crossing Mail Order Rule.(Brief Article)
February 28, 2000... A company that markets Beanie Babies' Official Club ("BBOC") and related products will donate $216,000 to the federal budget surplus to settle allegations that it violated the FTC's Mail and Phone Order Rule by failing to deliver mail orders...

Exxon Mobil asks OK for Mobil Boston Terminal sale, accelerated comment period.(Brief Article)
February 28, 2000... Exxon Mobil Corporation has petitioned the Commission for approval to divest the Mobil Boston Terminal to the East Boston Terminal Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tosco Corporation as required by a November consent order [FTC: WATCH No....

Meade wants FTC to drop prior approval provision.(Brief Article)
February 28, 2000... Meade Instruments Corporation petitioned the agency to remove the prior approval requirement (paragraph II) of an August 1991 consent order that allowed a joint venture between Harbour Group Investments, LP, which controlled Meade's predecessor...

El Paso Energy Corporation asks FTC to approve its Destin pipeline divestiture.(Brief Article)
February 28, 2000... El Paso Energy Corp. wants the agency to approve its sale of 33.3 % membership interest in Destin Pipeline, LLC to Amoco Destin Pipeline Co., an entity controlled by BP/Amoco as proposed in a consent agreement reached with the Commission last...

Fidelity National Financial.(Brief Article)
February 28, 2000... Now final is the Commission's order requiring Fidelity National Financial, Inc. to divest title plants in six California counties to settle allegations Fidelity's acquisition of Chicago Title Corp. would reduce competition in the local markets...

Memtek Productions, Inc.(Brief Article)
February 28, 2000... The Commission voted to finalize its order with Memtek Productions, settling allegations that Memtek did not deliver cash rebates for consumers who bought its 100 computer diskette packages within 12 weeks as promised or mail check rebates for...

UMAX Technologies.(Brief Article)
February 28, 2000... The Commission has made final its order settling charges that UMAX Technologies, Inc. -- a wholesale distributor of computer scanners, digital cameras and personal computers -- deceptively advertised rebate offers made in connection with its...

Calendar.
February 28, 2000... March 1 - the FTC and FCC will announce their policy Regarding truth-in-advertising of long distance services March 2 - FTC Chairman Robert Pitofsky will participate in a panel discussion at a public policy conference, Substance Abuse in...