Announced Action for May 11, 2004

Commission approval of final consent order: By a vote of 5-0, the Commission has approved a final consent order and authorized the staff to send letters to the commentors of record in the matter concerning California Pacific Medical Group, Inc, d/b/a Brown & Toland Medical Group. The FTC announced on February 9, 2004, that it had accepted a consent order with the respondents, and placed it on the public record for comment. The comment period expired on March 10, 2004, and two comments were received, both of which are now available on the Commission’s Web site. (FTC Docket No. 9306; the staff contact is Sylvia Kundig, FTC Western Regional Office – San Francisco, 415-848-5188; see press release issued February 9, 2004.)

Publication of transcripts of the joint FTC/DOJ workshop on merger enforcement: The Commission has published transcripts of the three-day joint FTC/DOJ Workshop on Merger Enforcement held in Washington, DC, on February 17-19, 2004. In addition to the transcript documents, which can be found on the FTC’s Web site at www.ftc.gov/bc/mergerenforce/index.html, the Commission also has made available the workshop agenda and presentations, public comments on the workshop, two sets of merger investigation data for 1996-2003 and 1999-2003, the previously published workshop announcement, and a press release related to the event. The workshop brought together prominent practitioners, academics, and enforcement officials to discuss the FTC’s and DOJ’s Horizontal Merger Guideline. It explored state-of-the-art applications of the Guidelines by those with the most experience using them.

Copies of the documents mentioned in this release are available from the FTC’s Web site at http://www.ftc.gov and also from the FTC’s Consumer Response Center, Room 130, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20580. Call toll-free: 1-877-FTC-HELP.