Legal Library: Cases and Proceedings

A consent order prohibits Frye Regional Medical Center, Inc., an acute care hospital in Hickory, North Carolina, and its parent company Tenet Healthcare Corporation from entering into any agreement to negotiate fees on behalf of any physician practicing in four North Carolina counties and from refusing to deal with insurance companies and other payers. Also refer to related administrative complaint issued to Piedmont Health Alliance. This settlement is the first case in which the Commission has named a hospital as a participant in an alleged physician price-fixing conspiracy.

A final consent order settled antitrust concerns stemming from General Electric Company’s proposed acquisition of Agfa-Gevaert N.V.’s nondestructive testing business. According to the complaint issued with the consent order, the transaction as proposed would have eliminated competition in the United States markets for portable flaw detectors, corrosion thickness gages, and precision thickness gages - equipment used to inspect the tolerance of materials without damaging them or impairing their future usefulness. The consent order requires General Electric to divest its worldwide Panametrics Ultrasonic NDT business to R/D Tech, Inc. within 20 days after the transaction is completed.

The FTC charged that, as proposed, DSM's purchase of RV&FC would have a significant adverse effect on competition in the worldwide market for phytase. Phytase is an enzyme added to certain animal feed to promote the digestion of nutrients necessary for livestock production.  According to the complaint, absent relief, the transaction would lead to DSM being part of alliances that supply more than 90 percent of the $150 million phytase market worldwide. A consent order permitted DSM N.V. to acquire the Vitamins and Fine Chemicals Division of Roche Holding AG but requires DSM to divest its phytase business to BASF AG.