FTC: Watch articles from February 2002

FTC: Watch archives from February 2002

Antitrust jurisdiction agreement not dead ... yet.(Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice)
February 11, 2002... A proposed FTC/DOJ agreement to divide antitrust jurisdiction remains to be implemented. Neither the FTC nor the Justice Dept.'s Antitrust Division informed Congress of the plan before scheduling a January 17 press conference to announce...

Bush 2003 antitrust funds exceed inflation; Agency funding still tied to HSR fees.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
February 11, 2002... Considering the sluggish economy and a looming fiscal deficit, the federal antitrust agencies have fared quite well in the President's Budget for fiscal year 2003. The president recommends $177 million for the FTC -- $79 million for the...

AAI seeks to stay Microsoft settlement.(American Antitrust Institute)
February 11, 2002... "The disclosure provisions were designed to help ensure that no defendant can ever achieve through political activities what it cannot obtain through the legal process." Former Senator John V. Tunney The American Antitrust Institute (AAI)...

Microsoft, U.S. may modify settlement, request one day Tunney Act hearing.(Brief Article)
February 11, 2002... "The United States believes that there is a substantial public interest in prompt resolution of the Tunney Act issues and entry of the RPFJ." U.S./ Microsoft Joint Status Report "Judicial economy and fairness argue for going slow on the...

Kohl, geeks, WLF & 30,000 others submit Microsoft settlement comments.
February 11, 2002... Fewer than one-tenth of the 30,000 public comments submitted to the Antitrust Division regarding its pending settlement with Microsoft contained detailed substance concerning the settlement, according to the February 7 U.S./ Microsoft Joint...

IP hearings kick off; Scheffman defends Dell.(Brief Article)
February 11, 2002... There is no hidden agenda behind the joint DOJ/ FTC hearings on the implications of competition and patent law and policy, FTC Chairman Timothy Muris emphasized in his opening remarks at the hearings debut on February 6. Assistant Attorney...

Scheffman, Muris aide predict trade association cases.(Brief Article)
February 11, 2002... Expect FTC enforcement cases involving trade associations and professional groups to surface soon, FTC Economics Bureau Chief David Scheffman predicted at a recent informal forum titled "What is the FTC doing with Trade Associations?" hosted by...

DuPont urges new polyester subclass category for Textile Rule.(Brief Article)
February 11, 2002... Should Section 7(c) of the FTC's Textile Rules be amended to create a new generic subclass name that would more accurately accommodate E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company's (DuPont) new fiber "T400"? DuPont has petitioned the FTC to create...

Conflict of interest thresholds for directors in competing companies raised.(Brief Article)
February 11, 2002... It is now unlawful for an individual to serve as an officer or director of two or more competing corporations if each of two companies has capital, surplus, and undivided profits in excess of $18,193,000, and annual sales of each corporation...

New ID Theft Affidavit.(Brief Article)
February 11, 2002... Victims of identity theft can expedite the process for alerting companies when new accounts have been fraudulently opened in their names if the FTC's new model form, the "ID Theft Affidavit," proves effective. Previously, identity theft victims...

Stamp auction bid-rigging.(Brief Article)
February 11, 2002... A stamp dealer company and a principal executive face two counts of violating Section One of the Sherman Act with heavy fines and jail time after the Antitrust Division charged that they conspired with unnamed co-conspirators to rig bids at...

DOJ advises FCC to OK Verizon's New Jersey long distance application.(Department of Justice, Federal Communcations Commission)(Brief Article)
February 11, 2002... The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) should approve Verizon's application to provide long distance services in New Jersey, the Antitrust Division recommended on January 28. Verizon applied for FCC approval on December 20, and the FCC must...

US/EU Convergence: Much quieter on the western front.(Brief Article)
February 11, 2002... Despite a surprisingly public display of differences following the U.S.'s and EU's respective stances on the GE-Honeywell merger last year, Deputy Assistant Attorney General William J. Kolasky concentrated on agreements and similarities in...

Merger Watch.(multiple mergers and acquisitions)(Brief Article)
February 11, 2002... Merger Watch: The FTC requested more information about Amgen's proposed acquisition of Immunex on February 7. Amgen is a global biotechnology company that discovers, develops, makes and markets human therapeutics based on advances in cellular...

Non-merger watch.(Brief Article)
February 11, 2002... Non-merger watch: Representatives of several major oil companies met with the FTC Competition Bureau staff recently as the agency's investigation of Unocal's alleged abuse of a patent for cleanburning gasoline continues, FTC:WATCH has learned....

Intimidating DOJ? There's a switch.(antitrust law)(Brief Article)
February 11, 2002... Intimidating DOJ? There's a switch: According to a February 6 account by Reuters, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Deborah Majoras told a telecommunications conference in Washington that anti-Microsoft lobbyists are trying to intimidate the...

Nestle/Ralston Purina order revised; Anthony wary of mix & match mergers.(Brief Article)
February 11, 2002... The Commission has given final approval to a revised order in the Nestle S.A. and Ralston Purina Co. merger The Order now provides that the buyer of Ralston's Meow Mix and Alley Cat brands, J.W. Childs, will not sell the acquired assets within...

FTC seeks $51 million from telemarketers who allegedly violated 1996 order.(Diversified Marketing Services)(Brief Article)
February 11, 2002... The FTC has asked a U. S. District Court to hold telemarketers who allegedly violated a 1996 FTC order in contempt of court and to require them to hand over $51 million in consumer redress. The FTC motion for civil contempt names...

FTC approves 2 petitions.(Brief Article)
February 11, 2002... 1. Dow Chemical Union Carbide petition The Commission has approved a petition by the Dow Chemical Company to amend the "Huntsman Agreement" and the "Ineos Agreement," both part of the FTC's merger order requiring Dow Chemical and Union...

Chevron/Texaco get OK to divest Equilon.(Brief Article)
February 11, 2002... The Commission has approved Chevron Corp. and Texaco Inc.'s application to divest Texaco's interests in Equilon Enterprises LLC and Motiva Enterprises LLC to Shell Oil Company and Saudi Refining, Inc. The FTC required the divestiture in its...

TruVantage order modified.(unsubstantiated claims case)(Brief Article)
February 11, 2002... The Commission has modified its order with the infomercial maker Tru-Vantage International, LLC, resolving allegations that TVI made unsubstantiated claims that a throat spray, Snorenz, reduces or eliminates snoring and requiring the company to...

The following order is final.(Brief Article)
February 11, 2002... Diageo PLC and Vivendi Universal S.A. File No. 011-0057 Contact: Joseph S. Brownman, 202-326-2605

Calendar.
February 11, 2002... February 14 - Commissioner Orson Swindle will deliver the keynote address at the annual industry dinner held by Australia's Internet Industry Association; Dockside, Cockle Bay Wharf, Darling Harbour, Sydney, Australia; 6:30 p..m. February...

Former FTC Competition Bureau Director Molly Boast.(joined Debevoise and Plimpton)(Brief Article)
February 11, 2002... Former FTC Competition Bureau Director Molly Boast has joined Debevoise & Plimpton. Find her at 212-909-1069 or [less than]msboast@debevoise.com[greater than].

Former Antitrust Division trial lawyer Gregory E. Neppl.(partner at Foley and Lardner)(Brief Article)
February 11, 2002... Former Antitrust Division trial lawyer Gregory E. Neppl is now a partner at Foley & Lardner. Prior to his current job, Neppl served as Senior Antitrust and Regulatory Counsel at Northrop Grumman's Litton Industries subsidiary.

Generic drug cases advance at FTC and in the courts.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2002... Five days before the FTC announced a settlement with American Home Products Corp. resolving charges that AmHo agreed to withhold a generic version of the drug K-Dur 20 from the market in return for payments from Schering-Plough Corp., U.S....

Predatory pricing: a rare or a cagey animal? FTC staff dislikes Virginia gasoline predatory pricing bill.
February 25, 2002... "Below Cost Sales of Motor Fuels," Senate Bill No. 458, is unnecessary and perhaps anti-competitive, FTC Policy Planning Office and Competition Bureau staff advised the Virginia House Delegate Robert F. McDonnell (R-Va. Beach) in a February 14...

Communications media: Appeals court ruling rejection of FCC ownership rules and antitrust jurisdiction agreement.(Federal Communications Commission)(Brief Article)
February 25, 2002... Last week, the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia sided with media giants who seek to remove long standing media ownership limits that ban cross ownership between cable and broadcast TV stations and prohibit any one...

FTC urges closer eye on class action law suits that follow government actions.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2002... Courts should give greater scrutiny to class action attorney fees, coupon settlements and even competition for class counsel, the FTC thinks. The Judicial Conference's Rules of Practice and Procedure Committee is studying proposed amendments to...

FTC staff clears medical JV.(MedSouth Inc. to create physician network joint venture)(Brief Article)
February 25, 2002... MedSouth, Inc., a multi-specialty physician practice association in Colorado, can proceed unchallenged with a proposed, nonexclusive physician network joint venture, following to a recent FTC staff advisory opinion signed by Competition Bureau...

Washington State urged to drop M.D. collective bargaining bill.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2002... A bill in pending Washington State to authorize competing physicians and other providers to engage in collective bargaining with health plans over contract terms and conditions, including fees, would significantly increase health care costs,...

EPA should consider antitrust implications for clean-burning fuel regulations.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2002... The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency needs to think about competition issues as well as clean air quality when analyzing the effects of clean fuels regulations that require unique gasoline fuel blends, FTC staff from the General Counsel...

ABA urges ICN to reform cross-border merger review sooner than later.(American Bar Association, International Competition Network)(Brief Article)
February 25, 2002... Reform merger review procedures now, the American Bar Association Antitrust Law and International Law and Practice Sections urged the International Competition Network's Working Group on Mergers recently. The ICN's Mergers Working Group first...

Another BBB referral to FTC.(Better Business Bureau refers Web site dispute to FTC)(Brief Article)
February 25, 2002... www.agirllikeu.com refused a request from the Council of better Business Bureaus' Children's Advertising Review Unit to"implement an effective age-screening mechanism," CARU says, so it has referred the matter to the FTC for investigation of...

The often-forgotten role of price-cost margins in antitrust merger analysis.
February 25, 2002... During the last ten years, antitrust merger analysis has undergone significant changes, both at the enforcement agencies and in the courts, particularly since publication of the Department of Justice 1982 Merger Guidelines and their revision in...

Senate merger hearings.(Echostar/DirecTV, Comcast Corp./AT and T Broadband)(Brief Article)
February 25, 2002... Senate merger hearings: The Senate Antitrust Subcommittee expects to convene hearings on the proposed Echostar/DirecTV deal in the next few weeks. General Motors has agreed to sell DirecTV's owner Hughes Electronics to Echostar for $26 billion,...

Senate appropriations hearing.(on Justice Department budget)(Brief Article)
February 25, 2002... Senate appropriations hearing: As we went to press,the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, State and the Judiciary had scheduled an open session, starring Attorney General John Ashcroft, on February 26 to discuss the...

Tip.
February 25, 2002... Tip: It now takes several weeks for a letter dropped off with the USPS on Capitol Hill to make it a few blocks down Pennsylvania Ave. and the reverse. It's not the Postal Service's fault: every piece of mail has to be irradiated.

Budget note -- tobacco.(suit against tobacco industry)(Brief Article)
February 25, 2002... Budget note -- tobacco: We are grateful to the Legal Times for pointing out that the Bush Administration's FY 2003 budget proposal contains $25.2 million to continue the government's lawsuit against the tobacco industry. (Sometimes, it's not...

Microsoft: the Movie.('Revolution OS')(Brief Article)
February 25, 2002... Microsoft: the Movie: we haven't seen it, but according to New York Times movie reviewer Stephen Holden, "Revolution OS," now playing at Cinema Village, 22 East 12th Street, Greenwich Village, leaves "no question who the designated heroes and...

Post-Chicago economists speak.
February 25, 2002... Post-Chicago economists speak: The American Antitrust Institute has posted on its web site (www.antitrustinstitute.org) papers delivered at its annual conference in June, 2001, including: Some Principles for Post-Chicago Antitrust Analysis, by...

Raspberry ketones?
February 25, 2002... Raspberry ketones? From Wired News (Feb. 21) comes word of a new fat-burning pill to be marketed in May by the Japanese firm, Kanebo Cosmetics. The pill is said to contain "raspberry ketones." Being a dietary supplement rather than a "drug,"...

And then he said ...
February 25, 2002... And then he said...: "What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for...

Consumers and antitrust in the U.S. and EU.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2002... Although controversy over the exact mission of antitrust is not likely to die out, the fires have been tamped down by a generalized agreement among most members of the antitrust community (i.e., that part of the public able to identify names...

Microsoft: AAI PI motion denied Court vows to not enter judgment until all required disclosures made.
February 25, 2002... "The Court cannot approve the proposed consent decree without first addressing the sufficiency of Defendants' Tunney Act disclosures." U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly In a mixed February 20 ruling, U.S. District Court...

DOJ opposes 3rd party motions to intervene; Litigating states move to enter testimony that OEM's worse off with proposed decree.
February 25, 2002... "Every one of the twenty covered OEMs (computer makers) under the RPFJ (Revised Proposed Final Judgment) believes that Microsoft has benefited from the RPFJ at their expense." Plaintiff litigating states' motion to intervene in order to...

DOJ gives court 47 of 30,000 MS comments.(Department of Justice)(Brief Article)
February 25, 2002... On February 14, the Antitrust Division provided the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia with a mere 47 of the 30,000 public comments that it received during the 60-day public comment period for its Revised Proposed Final Judgment...

Tunney Act pioneers.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2002... There is a first time for everything. Even if Microsoft was not the first to innovate personal computers, Internet browsers, operating systems or media players, it has navigated unchartered waters around the 1974 Antitrust Procedures and...

Valero seeks FTC OK to divest Golden Eagle.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2002... Valero Energy Corp (Valero) and Ultramar Diamond Shamrock Corporation (Ultramar) requested FTC approval to divest Valero's "Golden Eagle CARB Refining and Marketing Assets" to Tesoro Petroleum Corp. and Tesoro's wholly owned subsidiary, Tesoro...

Roche must supply retavase two more years.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2002... The Commission approved Centocor's request for a two year extension of the supply contract between it and Roche Holdings Ltd. for the Retavase business -- in order to complete Roche's transfer of the divested Retavase assets (cardiac...

Mail-order retailer settles two parallel FTC complaints.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2002... A mail-order retail seller of wonder-cure gizmos will hand over $400,000 for consumer redress to settle two separate FTC complaints that it: (a) deceptively advertised six products (weight-loss aids, pain-relief magnets, air cleaners, and...

Glow-in-the-dark cell phones.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2002... The FTC is seeking permanent injunctions and consumer redress in two separate court actions alleging that Stock Value 1, Inc. (SV1) and Comstar Communications, Inc. (Comstar) misrepresented that their products block up to 97% or 99% of...

$46,000 or more in the next 90 days!(Brief Article)
February 25, 2002... Seven defendants caught in an FTC sting operation have agreed to settle charges that they were spamming consumers with deceptive chain letters. The letters, slightly changed variations on the same message, promised "$46,000 or more in the...

Psychic surgery on your wallet.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2002... In the mid-1970s, the FTC broke up a ring of "psychic surgeons" who claimed to be able to remove tumors by mysterious forces that didn't involve the use of physicians, hospitals or any of the expensive procedures usually associated with such...

FTC seeks civil contempt order against "Wall Street Workshop" operator, Wade Cook Financial Corp.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2002... Financial guru Wade Cook and his company, Wade Cook Financial Corp., allegedly have failed to comply with an October 2000 U.S. District Court order by, among other things, failing to: disclose the current rate of return for their stock trading...

Popcorn company settles COPPA charges.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2002... American Pop Corn Company will pay $10,000 to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it violated the Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA Rule) by collecting personal information from children on its "Jolly Time" Web site...

FTC's first complaint over credit card merchant account practices.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2002... Certified Merchant Services, Ltd.; Certified Merchant GP, Inc.; Certified Merchant Services, Inc. (collectively CMS); Jonathan Frankel; Craig Frankel; and Randal A. Best, of Plano, Tex,, operating as an Independent Sales Organization have...

Defendants pay $85,000 to settle alleged FTC Act, Telemarketing Rule violations.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2002... Consumer Repair Services, Inc., Mark Steinberg, and James DeHart and defendants Manhattan West Marketing and Frank Ciaravino violated the FTC Act and the Telemarketing Sales Rule in the sale and marketing of credit card loss protection...

Independent auditor approved for Lafarge/Blue Circle divestitures.(William Troutman to serve as independent auditor for Lafarge S.A., Blue Circle Industries PLC)(Brief Article)
February 25, 2002... The Commission approved an independent auditor agreement that authorizes William Troutman to serve as the independent auditor charged with ensuring that Lafarge S.A. and Blue Circle Industries PLC comply with their June FTC divestiture order....

11 more defendants in 1st Financial Solutions.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2002... The FTC has added 11 new corporate defendants to its November federal court action against 1st Financial Solutions, Inc., et al. that alleged that several Illinois defendants offered consumers major credit cards for significant advance...

AOL/TW cable agreements.(America Online, Time Warner Inc. request Federal Trade Commission approvals)(Brief Article)
February 25, 2002... America Online/Time Warner, Inc. (AOL/TW) requested FTC approval for: (1) a non-affiliated Internet Service Provider (ISP) agreement with: Internet Nebraska Corp. (Internet Nebraska), a nonaffiliated ISP; and (2) the alternative cable broadband...

The following orders are final.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2002... INA-Holding Schaeffler KG/FAG Kugelfischer Georg Schafer AG Chairman Timothy J. Muris did not participate. File No. 021-0002 Contact: Nick Koberstein, 202-326-2743 Pharmaceutical Formulation,; LNK International; Leiner Health...

Annual Truth-in-Lending, Leasing & Equal credit reports.(Federal Trade Commission reports)(Brief Article)
February 25, 2002... The Commission released its annual report on the Truth in Lending, Consumer Leasing, Equal Credit Opportunity, and Electronic Fund Transfer Acts. February 13 FTC press release File No. P024805 Contact: Carole L. Reynolds, 202-326-3230...