Legal Library: Cases and Proceedings

The FTC reached a settlement with Healthcare Technology Holdings, Inc., the parent company of market research firm IMS Health Inc., according to which IMS has agreed to sell two product lines of rival SDI Health LLC, as a condition of allowing it to proceed with its acquisition of SDI. The proposed settlement order requires the sale of SDI's promotional audit and medical audit businesses to an FTC-approved buyer to resolve the agency's charges that IMS's acquisition of SDI, as originally proposed, is anticompetitive and likely would increase prices for market research products in the health care industry. On1/10/2012, the FTC approved a modified final order settling the charges.

The Commission reached settlement agreement with Tops Markets LLC that protects consumers from the potential anticompetitive effects of Tops’ acquisition of the bankrupt Penn Traffic Company supermarket chain. To settle FTC charges that the acquisition was anticompetitive in several areas of New York and Pennsylvania, Tops agreed to sell seven Penn Traffic supermarkets to FTC-approved buyers in five grocery markets: Bath, Cortland, Ithaca, and Lockport, New York, as well as Sayre, Pennsylvania.