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Every year the FTC brings hundreds of cases against individuals and companies for violating consumer protection and competition laws that the agency enforces. These cases can involve fraud, scams, identity theft, false advertising, privacy violations, anti-competitive behavior and more. The Legal Library has detailed information about cases we have brought in federal court or through our internal administrative process, called an adjudicative proceeding.
The Commission accepted a proposed consent agreement with Quexco Incorporated, a company whose parent entity is Howard M. Meyers. The consent agreement related to the proposed acquisition by Quexco of Pacific Dunlop GNB Corporation, which is owned by Pacific Dunlop Limited. Both companies are involved in the secondary smelting of lead. The parties subsequently decided to abandon the sale of GNB to Quexco, which eliminated the need for the relief contained in the consent agreement. The Commission voted to withdraw the consent agreement and close the investigation.
Under a settlement with the FTC, ABB agreed to divest the Analytical Division of Elsag Bailey Process Automation N.V. to Siemens Corporation to address FTC concerns that the acquisition of Elsag would substantially reduce competition in the market for process gas chromatographs and process mass spectrometers, analytical instruments used to measure the chemical composition of a gas or liquid used in petrochemical refining, pharmaceutical and chemical manufacturing, and pulp and paper processing.
Consent order in BP Amoco p.1.c. (created by the merger of British Petroleum Company, p.1.c. and Amoco Corporation) requires the divestiture of 134 gas stations in eight markets and nine Light petroleum products terminals settling charges that the merger would substantially reduce competition in certain wholesale gasoline markets.
Order requires divestiture of 10 supermarkets in Maryland and Pennsylvania to settle antitrust concerns stemming from Ahold's acquisition of Giant Food Inc.
An association of marine pilots in Oregon agreed to settle charges that it monopolized and unreasonably restrained competition in the market for pilotage services on the Columbia River. The consent order prohibits Columbia River Pilots, a group of approximately 40 marine pilots licensed by the state of Oregon to provide navigational assistance to vessels on the Columbia River, from imposing unreasonable noncompete agreements on its members, allocating customers with any competing pilotage group, limiting any competing pilotage group's size, or restricting exclusive dealing contracts or rate proposals.
A pharmacy association in northern Puerto Rico and Ricardo Alvarez Class settled charges that they engaged in an illegal boycott in an attempt to obtain higher reimbursement rates for pharmacy goods and services under the government's managed care plan for the indigent. The consent order prohibits the members of the association and Mr. Class from engaging in joint negotiations for prices and from threatening to boycott or refusing to provide pharmacy services.
To settle FTC charges, LaFarge, Corp. agreed to restructure its agreement to purchase certain assets of Holnam, Inc. LaFarge and Holnam are two of five competitors in the portland cement market in the Puget Sound area. In February 1998, LaFarge and Holnam signed a letter of intent detailing an agreement under which LaFarge would buy Holnam's Seattle cement plant, cement distribution terminal in Vancouver, Washington, a rock quarry in Twin Rivers, Washington, and related assets. The FTC alleged that a provision of the sales agreement between LaFarge and Holnam would have imposed a penalty on LaFarge if it produced quantities of cement in excess of 85 percent of the Holnam plant's capacity. According to the FTC, this provision would encourage LaFarge to restrict the output of cement at the Seattle plant to avoid the production penalty and would prevent an increase in supply and a reduction in price for cement in the Puget Sound area. To restore competition, LaFarge and Holnam agreed to drop the production penalty clause.
The complaint, issued with the consent order, alleged that as a result of Merck's 1993 acquisition of Medco, the nation's largest benefits manager, Merck's drugs received favorable treatment through Medco's drug-list formulary made available to medical professionals who prescribe and dispense prescriptions to health plan beneficiaries. The consent order requires Medco, among other things, to maintain an "open formulary" to include drugs approved by an independent Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee, staffed by physicians and pharmacologists who have no financial interest in Merck.
A final consent order settles allegations stemming from Medtronic's proposed acquisition of Physio-Control International Corporation's automatic external defibrillator business. According to the complaint, Medtronic, through its controlling interest in SurVivaLink Corporation, a direct competitor of Physio-Control, would control both companies as a result of the acquisition and thereby increase the likelihood of coordinated interaction which could result in increased prices and reduce innovation in the market. The consent order requires Medtronic to become a passive investor in SurVivaLink and reduce many of its present and future business contacts with the firm.
The consent order requires Shell Oil and its Tejas Energy, LLC, subsidiary, to divest parts of the ANR pipeline system in Oklahoma and Texas to settle charges that its acquisition of gas gathering assets of The Coastal Corporation would lead to anticompetitive increases in gas gathering rates and an overall reduction in gas drilling and production in the two states.
A consent order requires Albertson's to divest eight supermarkets in Montana and seven in Wyoming in order to settle FTC charges and maintain competitive grocery pricing in 11 communities following its acquisition of the Buttrey Food and Drug Store Company. Under the consent agreement, 13 of the supermarkets would be sold to Smith's Food and Drug Centers, Inc. and two supermarkets would be sold to Supervalu Holdings, Inc.
Federal-Mogul, one of the world's leading producers of thinwall bearings used in car, truck and heavy equipment engines, agreed to divest the thinwall bearings assets it acquired in its $2.4 billion takeover of T&N, plc. to settle FTC charges that the acquisition would likely substantially reduce competition in the worldwide market for thinwall bearings. According to the FTC, Federal-Mogul and T&N, headquartered in Manchester, England, have a combined market share in the United States of nearly 80 percent or more in each of the four markets identified in the complaint. The FTC consent order requiree Federal-Mogul to divest the thinwall bearings business of T&N, which includes the assets and plants that T&N uses to make thinwall bearings, as well as intellectual property that T&N uses to develop and design new bearings to meet the needs of engines that OEMs will develop in the future. To ensure that the divested thinwall bearings business would be in the same position that T&N had been in terms of research, the proposed order identifies individuals in T&N who worked on bearings research and development, and requires Federal-Mogul and T&N to assign those personnel to the businesses to be divested.
Final consent order settled allegations that the proposed consolidation of Commonwealth's title plant with First American Title Insurance Company, its only competitor in the Washington, DC area, would create a monopoly for title services in the Washington, DC market. The consent order requires Commonwealth, among other things, to reestablish its operations and to maintain them as viable businesses in competition with First American.
Exxon will divest its viscosity index improver business to Chevron Chemical Company LLC to settle allegations that its proposed joint venture with Royal Dutch Shell to develop, manufacture and sell their fuel and lubricants additives would reduce competition and lead to collusion among the remaining firms in the market.
Consent order settles charges that the acquisition of Petroleum Information Corporation could create a monopoly for production and well history data used by geologists and petroleum engineers to find additional oil and gas reserves. The settlement requires Dwight to license a complete set of well history to HPDI, an independent competitor, or another Commission-approved licensee.
An association of 25 automobile dealerships settled charges that they agreed to boycott Chrysler if the manufacturer continued to allocate vehicles based on total sales. Competing dealers marketed vehicles offering lower prices on the Internet and were taking substantial sales from other dealers in the Northwest. The consent order prohibits the dealers from threatening to enter into any boycott or refusal to deal with any automobile manufacturer or consumer.
Nortek, Inc., agreed to settle FTC charges that its $242.5 million acquisition of NuTone, its closest competitor in the hard-wired residential intercom business, would violate federal antitrust laws by creating a dominant firm that could drive up prices in the market. Nortek, based in Providence, Rhode Island, controls 31 percent of the market for hard- wired residential intercoms, through its M & S subsidiary. NuTone is the leading seller of residential intercoms, with about 56 percent of the market. Together, the merged firm would control about 87 percent of U.S. hard-wired residential intercom sales.To settle the FTC charges, Nortek agreed to divest M & S, its wholly-owned subsidiary and the second-largest seller of hard-wired residential intercoms in the United States.
Consent order prohibits the association from entering into agreements that restrict its members from posting or advertising room rates for lodgings in the South Lake Tahoe area of Northern California and Nevada.
Sky Chefs modified its acquisition plans, excluding Ogden Corporation's in-flight catering operation at the McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, Nevada from its purchase agreement, to settle Commission concerns that the consolidation of the two firms in Las Vegas would lead to higher prices for airline catering services. The consent order prohibits Sky Chefs from making certain acquisitions without Commission approval for 10 years.
Dentists in three communities in Puerto Rico settled charges that they refused to provide dental services under the government's managed care plan for the indigent unless they received certain prices. Under the terms of the consent order, the dentists are prohibited from jointly boycotting or refusing to deal with any third party payer to obtain higher reimbursement rates for dental services.