Federal Trade Commission/Department of Justice Hearings on Single-Firm Conduct to Continue on December 6

The Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice’s 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 December 6, 2006, in Washington, D.C. As previously announced, these 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 procompetitive and lawful. The hearings will continue during the coming months.

The panel on December 6 will explore the circumstances in which misleading and deceptive conduct may be considered exclusionary. The session will be held at the FTC’s Conference Center at 601 New Jersey Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C., Conference Room A.

Misleading and Deceptive Conduct (9:30 a.m.–1:00 p.m.):

Michael F. Brockmeyer is a Partner, Frommer Lawrence & Haug LLP, and an Adjunct Professor of Law, University of Maryland School of Law.

George S. Cary is a Partner, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, and a former Deputy Bureau Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition.

Susan A. Creighton is a Partner, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, PC, and a former Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition.

R. Preston McAfee is the J. Stanley Johnson Professor of Business Economics and Management, California Institute of Technology.

Gil Ohana is the Director, Antitrust and Competition, Cisco Systems, Inc.

Richard P. Rozek is a Senior Vice President, NERA Economic Consulting.

The public and press are invited to attend all of the hearings. Seating will be on a first-come, first-served basis. 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 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. Persons seeking more information 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.