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Sessions on January 30-31 to Focus on Business/Academic Testimony

The Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Antitrust Division today announced that the latest in a series of joint public hearings designed to examine the implications of single-firm conduct under the antitrust laws will take place on January 30–31, 2007 in Berkeley, California.

These hearings have been examining whether and when specific types of single-firm conduct may violate Section 2 of the Sherman Act (which prohibits monopolization and attempted monopolization) by harming competition and consumer welfare and when they are pro-competitive and lawful. The January sessions will be hosted by the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology and the Competition Policy Center at the University of California, Berkeley.

The panels on January 30 will provide an opportunity for business executives to express their views on Section 2 issues, including areas where the companies perceive that single-firm anticompetitive conduct has harmed consumers and areas where legitimate pro-competitive behavior may have been chilled. These panels also will provide an opportunity for company executives to identify areas where they believe additional agency antitrust guidance would be useful. The January 31 panels will provide an opportunity for the agencies to obtain testimony from academics with expertise in competition policy.

The sessions will be held at the University of California at Berkeley, Haas School of Business, Wells Fargo Room, 2220 Piedmont Avenue, Berkeley, California 94720.

Further information is provided below:

Jan. 30, 2007 Sessions

Business Testimony (9:30 A.M.–12:30 P.M. P.S.T.):

Michael D. Hartogs is the Senior Vice President and Division Counsel at QUALCOMM Technology Licensing.

David A. Heiner is the Vice President and Deputy General Counsel for Antitrust at Microsoft Corporation.

Scott K. Peterson is Senior Counsel at Hewlett-Packard Company.

Robert A. Skitol is a senior partner in the Antitrust Practice Group at Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP (Washington, D.C.) and counsel to the VMEbus International Trade Association (VITA).

Business Testimony (2:00 P.M.–4:30 P.M. P.S.T.):

David A. Dull is the Senior Vice President of Business Affairs, General Counsel, and Secretary at Broadcom Corporation.

Michael E. Haglund is a partner at Haglund Kelley Horngren Jones & Wilder (Portland, Ore.) and counsel to Ross-Simmons.

Thomas M. McCoy is the Executive Vice President of Legal Affairs and Chief Administrative Officer at AMD.

Jan. 31, 2007 Sessions

Academic Testimony (9:30 A.M.–12:00 P.M. P.S.T.):

Aaron Edlin is the Richard Jennings Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley.

Joseph Farrell is a Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley.

Howard Shelanski is the Associate Dean and a Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Director of the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology.

Academic Testimony (1:30 P.M.–4:30 P.M. P.S.T.):

Timothy Bresnahan is the Landau Professor in Technology and the Economy in the economics department at Stanford University.

Richard Gilbert is a Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley and the Chair of the Berkeley Competition Policy Center.

Daniel Rubinfeld is the Robert L. Bridges Professor of Law and Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley.

Carl Shapiro is the TransAmerica Professor of Business Strategy and Professor of Economics and the Director of the Institute of Business and Economic Research at the University of California, Berkeley.

The public and press are invited to attend all of the hearings. Seating will be on a first-come, first-served basis. The sessions will be webcast at: http://iber.berkeley.edu/cpc. Interested parties may submit written comments to the FTC and the Antitrust Division.

Further information about these hearings will be posted on the FTC’s Web site, http://www.ftc.gov/os/sectiontwohearings/index.shtm and the Antitrust Division’s Web site,
http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/public/hearings/single_firm/sfchearing.shtm. Individuals seeking more information on the hearings should contact Patricia Schultheiss, FTC, at section2hearings@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.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Mitchell J. Katz,
Office of Public Affairs
202-326-2161

STAFF CONTACT:

Patricia Schultheiss,
202-326-2877

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