Legal Library: Cases and Proceedings

Waterous and Hale Products, Inc. agreed to settle charges that for more than 50 years they sold fire pumps on an exclusive basis to fire truck manufacturers in an attempt to allocate the customers each would serve, thereby making it more difficult for other pump makers to enter the market. The two consent orders prohibit each company from enforcing any requirement that fire truck manufacturers refrain from purchasing mid-ship mounted fire pumps from any other company, or that they purchase or sell only the relevant Waterous or Hale pumps.

Consent order settles allegations that the proposed acquisition of Loral Corporation would reduce competition in the markets for air traffic control systems, commercial low earth orbit satellites, military tactical fighter aircraft, and unmanned aerial vehicles. The order requires the divestiture of a systems engineering and technical services contract with the Federal Aviation Administration and prohibits the sharing of sensitive information concerning competitors' products between the two firms.

Consent order settles charges that the acquisition of Chrysler Technologies Holding, Inc. reduced competition for the U.S. Navy's future procurement of the Submarine High Data Rate satellite communications system for use in Navy submarines. The order requires Raytheon to erect an information "firewall" to prohibit the exchange of sensitive information concerning the Submarine HDR system prior to the completion of the competitive procurement.

Precision Moulding agreed to settle charges that it attempted to fix prices in the market for stretcher bars used to construct frames for artists' canvases. The complaint alleges that representatives of Precision Moulding invited a new competitor in the industry to raise its prices, suggesting that the competitor's prices were too low.