Federal Trade Commission/Department of Justice Hearings on Single-firm Conduct to Continue on July 18

The Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Antitrust Division today announced that the third in a series of planned joint public hearings designed to examine the antitrust implications of single-firm conduct under the antitrust laws will take place on July 18, 2006, in Washington, DC. As previously announced, these public 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 pro-competitive or benign. The hearings will continue through the year. The session on July 18, which will be held at 601 New Jersey Ave., N.W., Washington, DC, Conference Room C, and will go from 1:30 to 5:00 pm, will focus on the competitive implications associated with unilateral refusals to deal. As explained in the Federal Register notice announcing the hearings, such refusals occur when a firm chooses not to make a product or service available to another firm.

The session’s participants will be:

William J. Kolasky, Partner and Co-Chair of WilmerHale’s Antitrust and Competition Department, and former Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Department of Justice, Antitrust Division.

R. Hewitt Pate, Partner and Head of Hunton & Williams’s Global Competition Practice Group, and former Assistant Attorney General, Department of Justice, Antitrust Division.

Robert Pitofsky, Joseph and Madeline Sheehy Professor in Antitrust and Trade Regulation Law, Georgetown University Law Center, and former Chairman, FTC.

Steven C. Salop, Professor of Economics and Law, Georgetown University Law Center.

Thomas F. (Tom) Walton, Director, Economic Policy Analysis, General Motors Corporation.

Mark Whitener, Senior Counsel, Competition Law & Policy, General Electric Company, and Former Deputy Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition.

The general public and press are invited to attend and view the proceedings. Seating will be on a first-come, first-served basis. Written comments from interested parties may be submitted to the FTC and the Antitrust Division.

Further information about the Section 2 hearings will be posted on the FTC’s Web site at http://www.ftc.gov/os/sectiontwohearings/index.htm and on the Antitrust Division’s Web site at http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/public/hearings/single_firm/sfchearing.htm. Individuals seeking more information on the hearings should contact Patricia Schultheiss, FTC, at section2hearings2@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.