Federal Trade Commission/Department of Justice Hearings on Single-firm Conduct to Continue on September 12

The Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Antitrust Division today announced that the fourth in a series of joint public hearings designed to examine the implications of single-firm conduct under the antitrust laws will take place on September 12, 2006, in Washington, DC. As previously announced, these hearings will examine whether and when specific types of single-firm conduct may violate Section 2 of the Sherman Act by harming competition and consumer welfare, and when they are procompetitive and lawful. The hearings will continue during the coming months.

The first panel on September 12 will focus on how foreign antitrust enforcers apply their laws to allegations of anticompetitive single-firm conduct. The second panel will focus on international antitrust practice in the single-firm conduct area. Both panels will be held at the FTC’s Satellite Building at 601 New Jersey Ave., N.W., Washington, DC, Conference Room C.

Further information is provided below:

Morning Session (9:30 AM - 12:00 PM): International Enforcement Perspectives

Philip Lowe is the Director General for Competition of the European Commission.

Hideo Nakajima is the Deputy Secretary General, General Secretariat, of the Japan Fair Trade Commission.

Eduardo Pérez Motta is the President of the Mexican Federal Competition Commission.

Sheridan Scott is the Commissioner of Competition of the Canadian Competition Bureau.

Afternoon Session (1:30 PM - 4:00 PM): Practitioner and Academic Perspectives

George Addy is a partner at Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP and former head of the Canadian Competition Bureau.

Margaret Bloom is a visiting professor at the School of Law, King’s College London, and a senior consultant at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.

Paul Lugard is the Head of Antitrust at Royal Philips Electronics N.V.

James F. Rill is a partner at Howrey LLP and former Assistant Attorney General, Antitrust Division, Department of Justice.

The public and press are invited to attend the hearings. Seating will be on a first-come, first-served basis. Interested parties may submit written comments to the FTC and the Antitrust Division.

Further information about these hearings will be posted on the FTC’s Web site, http://www.ftc.gov/os/sectiontwohearings/index.htm and the Antitrust Division’s Web site, http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/public/hearings/single_firm/sfchearing.htm. Individuals seeking more information on the hearings should contact Patricia Schultheiss, FTC, at section2hearings@ftc.gov, or Gail Kursh, Deputy Chief, Legal Policy Section, Antitrust Division, at singlefirmconduct@usdoj.gov

The FTC works for the consumer to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices in the marketplace and to provide information to help consumers spot, stop and avoid them. To file a complaint, or to get free information on any of 150 consumer topics, call toll-free, 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357), or use the complaint form at http://www.ftc.gov. The FTC enters Internet, telemarketing, identity theft, and other fraud-related complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure, online database available to thousands of civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad.