Legal Library: Cases and Proceedings

Insilco agreed to divest two aluminum tube mills acquired in its acquisition of Helima-Helvetion International, Inc. to settle antitrust concerns that the acquisition would substantially reduce competition in the markets for welded-seam aluminum radiator and charged air cooler tubing in North America.

Two separate consent orders settle antitrust concerns stemming from acquisitions by the Loewen Group of certain funeral homes and cemeteries that substantially reduced competition in Brownsville and Harlingen/San Benito, Texas, and in Castlewood, Virgina.  The orders require Loewen to divest properties in the three local markets to restore competition.

The Commission authorized staff to file a motion for a preliminary injunction to block the proposed merger of the two largest hospitals in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Blodgen and Butterworth Hospital, on grounds that the merger would substantially reduce competition for acute-care inpatient hospital services in the area The complaint was filed January 23,1996 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan (Southern Division). On September 26,1996, the court denied the Commission's request for an injunction. The Commission dismissed its administrative complaint after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit upheld the district court's decision.

Mediq abandoned its proposed acquisition of Universal Hospital Services after the Commission filed a complaint and motion for a preliminary injunction to block the merger of the nation's two largest firms engaged in the rental to hospitals of movable medical equipment, such as respiratory, infusion and monitoring devices. The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, alleged that the merger would create a monopoly for movable medical equipment rental in many major metropolitan areas across the nation.