The legal library gives you easy access to the FTC’s case information and other official legal, policy, and guidance documents.
20030806: Cooperativa De Serguros Mutiples De Puerto Rico; Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance Group plc
20030647: Grupo TMM, S.A.; Kansas City Southern
Polygram Holding, Inc.; Decca Music Group Limited; UMG Recordings, Inc.; and Universal Music & Video Distribution Corp
The Commission issued an administrative complaint against Warner Communications, Inc., and several subsidiaries of Vivendi Universal S.A., charging them with illegally agreeing to fix prices for audio and video products featuring The Three Tenors. A settlement with Warner barred future agreements to fix prices or restrict advertising. After an administrative trial against Vivendi, an ALJ found that the agreement, while made in association with an otherwise legal joint venture between the companies, violated Section 5 of the FTC Act by illegally reducing competition in the U.S. market for the audio and video products cited. The Commission upheld the ruling of an administrative law judge and prohibited PolyGram from entering into any agreement with competitors to fix the prices or restrict the advertising of products they have produced independently. In July 2005, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit affirmed the Commission’s decision in Polygram Holding Inc., validating the Commission’s approach to analyzing horizontal conduct among competitors.
Granting of Request for Early Termination of the Waiting Period Under the Premerger Notification Rules
Physician Network Consulting, L.L.C., et al.; Analysis to aid Public Comment
On Review of UPL Advisory Opinion
20030745: General Dynamics Corporation; Veridian Corporation
Shell Oil Company and Pennzoil-Quaker State Company
Shell Oil Company was allowed to complete its $1.8 billion acquisition of Pennzoil-Quaker State Company but required to divest certain assets to maintain healthy competition in the refining and marketing of Group II paraffinic base oil in the United States and Canada. Under terms of the consent order, Ski1 and Pennzoil must divest its 50 percent interest in Excel Paralubes (a base oil refinery in Westlake, Louisiana) and freeze Pennzoil's right to obtain additional Group II supply under a contract with ExxonMobil at approximately current levels (up to 6,500 barrels of base oil per day)
SPA Health Organization, d/b/a Southwest Physician Associates, In the Matter of
A physician group in the Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas area settled charges that it collectively bargained on behalf of its members to negotiate fee schedules with third party payers and other health insurance companies. According to the complaint, issued with the consent order, these practices decreased competition and increased prices for the provision of medical services to area consumers.