Federal Trade Commission/Department of Justice Hearings on Single-Firm Conduct to Continue on May 1

The Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division today announced that the second-to-last panel in a series of joint public hearings designed to examine the implications of single-firm conduct under the antitrust laws will take place on May 1 in Washington, DC. The final panel will be held on May 8.

These hearings have been examining whether and when specific types of single-firm conduct may violate section 2 of the Sherman Act (which prohibits monopolization and attempted monopolization) by harming competition and consumer welfare, and when they are procompetitive and lawful.

The May 1 panel will be conducted in a roundtable format and will explore a wide range of enforcement and policy issues regarding single-firm conduct, including the analysis of monopoly power, various proposed standards for exclusionary conduct, and the application of those standards to specific practices. William Blumenthal, General Counsel of the Federal Trade Commission, and Dennis Carlton, Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, will moderate the panel. The panel will be held at the Federal Trade Commission’s Conference Center, 601 New Jersey Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C., Room A.

Further information is provided below:

May 1, 2007 Panel (1:00 P.M. - 5:00 P.M.)

William J. Baer is a Partner at Arnold & Porter LLP, and former Director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Competition.

Jonathan B. Baker is a Professor of Law, Washington College of Law, American University, and former Director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Economics.

Stephen Calkins is a Professor of Law and the Director of Graduate Studies at Wayne State University Law School, Of Counsel at Covington & Burling LLP, and former General Counsel of the Federal Trade Commission.

Einer R. Elhauge is the Carroll and Milton Petrie Professor of Law and the Director of the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School.

Jonathan M. Jacobson is a Partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, and a Commissioner of the Antitrust Modernization Commission.

William J. Kolasky is a Partner and Co-chair of WilmerHale’s Antitrust and Competition Department, and former Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division.

Thomas G. Krattenmaker is Of Counsel at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.

Janet L. McDavid is a Partner at Hogan & Hartson LLP.

Robert D. Willig is a Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School, a Director of Competition Policy Associates Inc., and former Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division.

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, http://www.ftc.gov/os/sectiontwohearings/index.htm and the Antitrust Division’s Web site,
http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/public/hearings/single_firm/sfchearing.htm. Individuals seeking more information on the hearings should contact Patricia Schultheiss, FTC, at section2hearings@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 more than 1,600 civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad.