FTC: Watch articles from November 2001

FTC: Watch archives from November 2001

Merger watch: a tie goes to the buyer.
November 5, 2001... For the second time in three months, an evenly divided FTC has failed to agree on the legality of a major corporate merger, allowing the transaction to proceed by default. In both cases, the investigating staff had recommended that the...

Leary offers respect for EU merger enforcement; James continues the quarrel.
November 5, 2001... "It is simply wrong to suggest that U.S. merger regulation is informed by empirical economic knowledge and European Union (E.U.) merger regulation is not," FTC Commissioner Thomas B. Leary told the Transatlantic Business Dialogue Principals...

It's our party and we'll call it what we want.
November 5, 2001... We blinked, and the name for the Global Competition Initiative/ Forum/ Network changed again - and is now being referred to as the International Competition Network (ICN) [FTC:WATCH No. 575, October 22]. "International antitrust enforcement...

Kids' Online Privacy Protection Rule proposal extends email provision.(Brief Article)
November 5, 2001... Web sites collecting personal information from kids for internal use could continue using e-mails to obtain verifiable parental consent for another two years. A new FTC Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) would extend a two year sunset...

Microsoft settlement is a failed remedy.
November 5, 2001... The settlement of the Microsoft case announced by Microsoft and the Department of Justice is a failed remedy. It fails to protect competition in the software industry and does not come close to dealing with the problems that were found to exist...

Microsoft: pitiful, helpless giant?
November 5, 2001... In Breaking Windows: How Bill Gates fumbled the future of Microsoft, Wall Street Journal reporter David Bank argues that by insisting that the company tie all of its software products into the Windowsr legacy, Gates forfeited Microsoft's...

Shelf space payments.(Brief Article)
November 5, 2001... Shelf space payments: The saga continues. For several years, as assiduously reported in these pages, the FTC has been investigation allegations that McCormick Spice Co. has illegally used payments to retail grocers, sometimes called "slotting...

Anthrax-free HSR filings. [Hart-Scott-Rodino premerger filings].(Brief Article)
November 5, 2001... Anthrax-free HSR filings: On October 29, after the Justice Department announced that some anthrax spores had been identified in one of its mail rooms servicing the main building, and parties were told that there would be no Hart-Scott-Rodino...

Senate eyes Echostar/DirecTV deal.(Brief Article)
November 5, 2001... Senate eyes Echostar/DirecTV deal: Senate Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman Herb Kohl (D-Wisc.) and Ranking Member Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) have not made up their minds about the proposed deal between Echostar and DirectTV. But they vow to scrutinize...

DOJ looks at online music distribution. [United States. Department of Justice].(Brief Article)
November 5, 2001... DOJ looks at online music distribution: The Antitrust Division is conducting a "preliminary" antitrust investigation into the recording industry's online music distribution practices, but will not elaborate further, according to numerous press...

Economy, privacy panels in California.
November 5, 2001... Economy, privacy panels in California: FTC Commissioner Mozelle W. Thompson is to host two separate panels this week. Thompson will discuss "The Good News About the New, New Economy" about the future of technology and the American economy at...

FCC Competition golden rules.("Digital Broadband Migration")(Brief Article)
November 5, 2001... FCC Competition golden rules: Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell annunciated four FCC competition policy objectives during an October 23 press conference about "Digital Broadband Migration." "Facilities based competition...

SunGard plays WTC card, Hotsite merger heads to court.(SunGard Data Systems Inc. antitrust case)(Brief Article)
November 5, 2001... SunGard says it looks forward to "vigorously defending itself in court" against the Antitrust Division's challenge to its proposed acquisition of Comdisco's Availability Solutions business. The government's gripe is with reducing the number of...

Newport Shipbuilding/GD cut their losses & bid adieu.(Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co. stop merger with General Dynamics)(Brief Article)
November 5, 2001... Newport News Shipbuilding and General Dynamics (GD) abandoned their April merger agreement a few days after the Justice Department moved to block the merger in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on October 23, in line with the...

Delaware medical groups settle 1998 boycott case.(Federation of Physicians & Dentists and Delaware orthopedic surgeons in antitrust case)(Brief Article)
November 5, 2001... A 1998 Antitrust Division law suit - charging the Federation of Physicians & Dentists and Delaware orthopedic surgeons with conspiring to constrain competition by conducting illegal negotiations for physicians' fees from Delaware Blue Cross &...

Waste Management Inc. divestiture modified.(Kelly Run Landfill)(Brief Article)
November 5, 2001... Waste Management will not have to divest Kelly Run Landfill in Pennsylvania under a joint motion to modify a 1999 Final Judgment. The company and the plaintiffs, the Federal Government, New York, Pennsylvania and Florida filed the joint motion...

Frozen pea bid-rigger in the can.(David Salomon and M&F Meat Products Co. are added to list of conspirators)(Brief Article)
November 5, 2001... A New Jersey man will languish in prison for 18 months and hand over $60,000 after he was found guilty of rigging bids for $123 million of the New York City Board of Education's (NYCBOE) frozen food contracts. David Salomon's company, M&F Meat...

Two votes on Diageo deals: Split vote on Pillsbury kills challenge; Alleged rum runners in the soup.(Brief Article)
November 5, 2001... Following a closed Commission meeting on October 24, Britain's Diageo PLC saw its Pillsbury desserts deal proceed unchallenged by default after a split vote along party lines with FTC Chairman Tim Muris not participating. General Mills,...

CBI/PDM deal challenged year after filing.(Pitt-Des Moines and Chicago Bridge and Iron Company)(Brief Article)
November 5, 2001... Eight months after Holland's Chicago Bridge & Iron Company (CBI) acquired the U.S. Pitt-Des Moines' (PDM) Water Division & Engineered Construction Division, and one year after the original Hart-Scott-Rodino premerger filing was lodged, the FTC...

Another post consummation divestiture Airgas quick sell to Airliquide.(two nitrous oxide production facilities)(Brief Article)
November 5, 2001... Last Friday, Airgas divested two nitrous oxide production facilities and related business to Air Liquide America Corp., one week after a provisional FTC complaint and order charged that its January 2000 $90 million acquisition of Puritan...

Criminal defense lawyers' petition.(Superior Court Trial Lawyers Association requests modification of 1986 FTC order)(Brief Article)
November 5, 2001... The Superior Court Trial Lawyers Association's petition asking the FTC to reopen and modify a 1986 FTC order to limit its scope to price-fixing [FTC:WATCH No. 573, September 24] is now up for comment. In 1983, the D.C. criminal defense bar...

Desperately Seeking Susan hangs up.(Online Consulting Group court case details)(Brief Article)
November 5, 2001... A sweetheart service owner and 'billing aggregator' are down $20,000 to resolve FTC charges that they deceptively advertised a free 800 number dating service and then collaborated to 'cram' unauthorized charges of $4 a minute onto...

Buying clubs down $9 million to settle FTC/state charges.(Triad Discount Buying Service)(Brief Article)
November 5, 2001... A bunch of buying clubs will surrender $9 million to settle FTC and state charges that they: (a) ambushed consumers into paying hefty annual fees after they accepted free "trial" club memberships; and (b) acquired consumers billing information...

FTC advice for Cipro have-nots.("Offers to Treat Biological Threats: What You Need to Know")(Brief Article)
November 5, 2001... Ever since the anthrax letters managed to shut down the U.S. Congress where two World Wars did not, some iconoclasts describe Washington D.C. and New York as cities divided by those with access to ciprofloxacin and those without such...

Adult web sites shed $30 million.(payment for illegally billing consumers for "free" peep shows)(Brief Article)
November 5, 2001... A gaggle of online porn sites including www.playgirl.com and www.highsociety.com will shed $30 million to settle FTC and New York charges that they illegally billed thousands of consumers for "free" peep shows and also billed other folks who...

TRO against merchant card targeting the credit-challenged.(Salyon Inc.)(Brief Article)
November 5, 2001... An operation that allegedly duped folks with lousy credit ratings into believing their gold cards were quid pro quos for MasterCard or Visa is now temporarily dysfunctional by edict of a federal court issued at the behest of the FTC. Following...

For the record.
November 5, 2001... The following order is final Svedala Industri AB/Metso Oyj Corp. Chairman Timothy Muris did not participate. File No. 001-0186 Contact: Matthew J. Reilly, 202-326-2350

AOL/TW ISP & cable service agreement.(AOL Time Warner, South Texas Internet Connections, STIC.NET)(Brief Article)
November 5, 2001... America Online/Time Warner (AOL/TW) seeks FTC approval for: (1) a non-affiliated Internet Service Provider (ISP) agreement with South Texas Internet Connections (STIC.NET); and (2) an alternative cable broadband ISP service agreement between...

Unified Western Grocers.(seeks approval to transfer SavMax store to Super Center Concepts Inc.)(Brief Article)
November 5, 2001... Unified Western Grocers, Inc. (formerly Certified Grocers of California) applied for FTC approval to transfer SavMax Store No. 309, located at 1375 N. Citrus Ave., Covina, California under the "SavMax" trade name to Super Center Concepts, Inc.,...

Calendar.
November 5, 2001... November 5-9 - FTC Commissioner Mozelle Thompson will be the Irvine Foundation Visiting Fellow at Stanford University Law School, Stanford, Cal. November 7 - "International aviation alliances: market turmoil and the future of airline...

Advertising: business calls in the Feds.(Brief Article)
November 19, 2001... Maybe it's the economy. Until recently, national advertising enforcement actions at the FTC have been rare. Most of the agency's consumer protection work has been concentrated on an almost endless stream of Internet quick bucks schemes. ...

Divestiture and the category captain: new considerations in merger remedies.
November 19, 2001... Two projects of the American Antitrust Institute come together in this essay. First, we have been calling attention to the anticompetitive potential of the new category captain relationship that has blossomed in consumer goods industries....

Muris, James stress strong E.U./U.S. bond Kolasky agitates again over GE/Honeywell.(Brief Article)
November 19, 2001... Is the past administration's preference for cultivating a warm, mutually respectful relationship between U.S. and European Commission (E.C.) trustbusters being discarded? One could easily gain that impression from following recent speeches by...

Muris to House: no antitrust surprises.(Brief Article)
November 19, 2001... "Continuity" is the watch word for antitrust enforcement in the current administration, FTC Chairman Timothy J. Muris testified before the House Commerce, Trade & Consumer Protection Subcommittee on November 7. Muris said that the current FTC...

Baseball's exemption attacked in House.(Brief Article)
November 19, 2001... At the November 7 House Hearing on challenges facing the FTC, Rep. Steve Buyer (R-Ind.) blamed high cable rates on the professional baseball antitrust exemption. "Congress gives baseball an antitrust exemption.[*] The baseball owners then pay...

Antitrust/intellectual property hearings.(Brief Article)
November 19, 2001... Public hearings on the relationship between antitrust law and intellectual property (IP) law are slated to commence next January 2002, with both the Antitrust Division and FTC co-hosting the event. This will be the first time that the Antitrust...

Open skies hearing.(Brief Article)
November 19, 2001... The proposed alliance between American Airlines and British Airways is under the Antitrust Division's microscope, Deputy Assistant Attorney General R. Hewitt Pate confirmed at a Senate Antitrust Subcommittee aviation hearing on November 7....

FTC toner phoner fraud workshop urges employee training.(Brief Article)
November 19, 2001... Employee education and training is the best way to prevent small businesses losing around $200 million a year to office supply fraud, concluded participants at a November 9 FTC workshop. Office supply fraud, also known as "toner-phoner"...

Unfinished electric generation plant exempt.(Brief Article)
November 19, 2001... Buying land and structures of an electric generation facility that is still under construction and has not yet generated any revenues would fall under the "unproductive real estate exemption" from Hart-Scott-Rodino Act (HSR) premerger reporting...

Pro rata spin outs exempt.(from premerger notification)(Brief Article)
November 19, 2001... Pro rata spin outs are exempt from premerger notification, FTC Premerger Notification Office (PNO) staff concurred with an unknown party who sought to clarify whether a real estate investment trust (REIT) had to file premerger documents before...

Change of ultimate parent entities of acquiring persons.(FTC merger regulation)(Brief Article)
November 19, 2001... Ultimate Parent Entities (UPEs) that were previously entities within another UPE do not have to make new premerger filings for transactions that were covered by the previous UPE's filings, FTC PNO staff agreed in a recent HSR staff opinion...

Loans to bankrupt parent company OK during HSR period.(Brief Article)
November 19, 2001... During the pendency of the HSR waiting period, a special purpose subsidiary (Buyer) would be allowed to extend loans to its parent company and/ or its subsidiaries (Seller) that "are currently operating as debtors in possession under Chapter 11...

New orange juice coop seeks PNO advice.(Brief Article)
November 19, 2001... A party whose name was redacted asked whether two transactions concerning citrus crops would be exempt from having to submit premerger notification and report forms. They were: (1) formation of not-for-profit agricultural cooperative (New Coop)...

Microsoft: Comes now the trial of the consent decree.
November 19, 2001... "I believe that the state AGs are investigating whether they can re-file the Microsoft case before military tribunal." - Internet comment The Antitrust Procedures and Penalties Act -- known informally as The Tunney Act -- provides that the...

Merger watch.(Brief Article)
November 19, 2001... Merger watch: Tyco International's bid for fellow catheter manufacturer C.R. Bard received a jolt when FTC negotiators, tired of receiving what they regard as a series of inadequate offers to fix antitrust problems, suggested that perhaps the...

2001 HSR figures mirror general economy.(Hart-Scott-Rodino premerger filing statistics)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
November 19, 2001... 2001 HSR figures mirror general economy: No one will be surprised that FY 2001 Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) premerger filing statistics show that premerger filings are way down since the new HSR thresholds of $50 million took effect last February....

Expect more nonmerger cases.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
November 19, 2001... Expect more nonmerger cases: Now that merger activity is dying down, the agency has a chance to catch up with non merger enforcement matters, FTC Competition Bureau Director Joe Simons said at the ABA Fall program on November 14. In the last...

Another possibility.(Unocal accused of patent violations)(Brief Article)
November 19, 2001... Another possibility: major oil companies have been complaining to the FTC with some success about Unocal's alleged abuse of a patent for cleanburning gasoline, FTC:WATCH has learned.

Closed investigations.(FTC merger and acquisition investigations)(Brief Article)
November 19, 2001... Closed investigations: An FTC investigation into General Dynamics Corp.'s proposed acquisition of the Boeing Company's Ordnance Division is over -- after the parties abandoned the transaction in early October, according to an October 23 letter...

FCC proposes local loop wholesale competition.(Brief Article)
November 19, 2001... FCC proposes local loop wholesale competition: A recent Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) would establish a core set of national performance measurements and standards for incumbent local exchange...

Canada, Mexico antitrust agreement.(Brief Article)
November 19, 2001... Canada, Mexico antitrust agreement: Canadian and Mexican ambassadors signed a competition law enforcement cooperation agreement on November 14 in Veracruz. The Canada-Mexico competition agreement is similar to the 1995 Canada/U.S. competition...

9/11 scams.(FTC plans action against fraud resulting from terrorist attacks on US)(Brief Article)
November 19, 2001... 9/11 scams: The agency has beefed up efforts to combat bogus fund-raising schemes that take advantage of the September 11 tragedy, FTC Consumer Protection Bureau Director J. Howard Beales, III informed the House Oversight Subcommittee on...

Small Businesses Recovery Forum.
November 19, 2001... Small Businesses Recovery Forum: A forum designed to help small businesses affected by the terrorists attacks by providing information on how to obtain financial assistance went ahead in New York on November 14. The Better Business Bureau,...

Internet competition.(study released by General Accounting Office)(Brief Article)
November 19, 2001... Internet competition: a General Accounting Office study of Internet backbone competition conducted at the request of Senate Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman Herb Kohl (D-Wisc.) and ranking Republican Mike DeWine (Ohio) shows that "the level of...

Sungard merger overcomes challenge.(SunGard Data Systems Inc.)(Brief Article)
November 19, 2001... On October 23, the Justice Department challenged SunGard Data Systems Inc.'s proposed acquisition of Comdisco, Inc., alleging that both firms were significant competitors in the market for disaster recovery systems and that the merger would...

Deliver HSR filings in person.(Brief Article)
November 19, 2001... Until further notice, the Antitrust Division will only accept Hart-Scott-Rodino premerger notification filings directly from filing law firms or in-house corporate counsel. And you can forget about using third-party delivery services or...

DOJ nixes BellSouth application to provide long distance service in Ga. and La.(Brief Article)
November 19, 2001... BellSouth should not be permitted to provide long distance services in Georgia and Louisiana because its operations support systems (OSS) are inadequate to support entry by competitors that lease its unbundled network elements, the Antitrust...

Cheezstick & frozen bean bid-rigger to be taxpayer's guest for 5 years.(Melvyn Merberg of Jitney Ltd.)(Brief Article)
November 19, 2001... The U.S. District Court in Manhattan afforded a former New York City food company executive the dubious honor of receiving the longest prison term ever imposed in an Antitrust Division case. Melvyn Merberg will spend five years behind bars...

"Made in USA" headache for 5 major analgesic makers.(Brief Article)
November 19, 2001... The five major companies that produce most U.S. over the counter analgesics have agreed to faithfully observe "country of origin" labeling requirements to settle FTC charges that many of their analgesic products labeled "Made in U.S.A."...

Travel club marketers minus $5 million.(Med Resorts International)(Brief Article)
November 19, 2001... Med Resorts International, five related companies, and their principals will surrender up to $5 million for consumer redress to settle FTC and Virginia charges that they violated the FTC Act and Virginian law by misrepresenting their travel...

Gadget Universe fuels FTC complaint.(unsubstantiated fuel economy)(Brief Article)
November 19, 2001... "Super FuelMAX automotive fuel-line magnet" marketers agreed not to misrepresent the benefits of purported fuel-saving or emissions-reducing products for automobiles to settle FTC charges that they made their claims without credible scientific...

Two transport brokers return $45,000.(AAAA Auto Car Brokers, Inc)(AAA Anywhere Anytime Auto Brokers, Inc)(Brief Article)
November 19, 2001... Two companies that arrange for private cars to be transported by truck, rail, or ship throughout the U.S. will deliver $45,000 for consumer redress to settle FTC charges that they made false claims about: (a) the certainty of pick-up and...

Computer marketer must post $400K bond.(Computer Personalities Systems Inc.,)(Brief Article)
November 19, 2001... A computer systems marketer will post a $400,000 bond before marketing any products or services via phone or mail to settle FTC allegations that he violated the FTC Act and the Mail Order Rule by failing to: (a) send proper delay notices; (b)...

Advance fee credit card telemarketing.(Financial Services of North America )(Brief Article)
November 19, 2001... Telemarketers will hand over $239,793 for consumer redress to resolve FTC allegations that they swindled people with poor credit histories with false promises that they could obtain VISA or MasterCards for advance fees. The complaint named...

AOL/TW ISP & cable service agreements.(America Online/Time Warner services in New York state)(Brief Article)
November 19, 2001... As required by an April 17 order, America Online/Time Warner has requested FTC approval of: (1) a non-affiliated Internet Service Provider (ISP) agreement with LocalNet Corp; and an alternative cable broadband service agreement between Time...

Calendar.(Brief Article)
November 19, 2001... November 27 - U.S.-E.U. merger review brown bag roundtable, "Convergence, Divergence, or Both? Views from the Private Sector and Reaction from Officialdom"; with DG Competition Merger Task Force Director Goetz Drauz; Deputy Assistant Attorney...