Legal Library: Cases and Proceedings

Alta Bates Medical Group, Inc., a 600-physician independent practice association serving the Berkeley and Oakland, California, area, settleed Commission charges that it violated federal antitrust law by fixing prices charged to health care insurers. The consent order prohibits Alta Bates from collectively negotiating fee-for-service reimbursements and engaging in related anticompetitive conduct. In addition to price-fixing of fee-for-service reimbursements, the FTC’s complaint alleges an unlawful concerted refusal to deal.

In September, 2008, the Commission challenged Reed Elsevier’s $4.1 billion proposed acquisition of ChoicePoint, which would have combined the two leading providers of electronic public record services provided to U.S. law enforcement customers. Public records services compile public and non-public records about individuals and businesses, including credit data, criminal, motor vehicle, property, and employment records, all used by law enforcement as an investigative tool in solving a wide variety of crimes. The transaction, as proposed, would have removed the intense rivalry that had lead to lower prices, product innovations, and improved services and support for law enforcement customers by eliminating the competition between Reed Elsevier’s LexisNexis product and ChoicePoint’s AutoTrackXP and CLEAR products. The Commission required divestiture of ChoicePoint’s product lines to Thomson Reuters Legal Inc. The Commission worked with the Attorneys General of eighteen states on this investigation.