FTC Testifies on the Impact of Two Recent Supreme Court Cases on Antitrust Enforcement in Regulated Industries

In testimony today before the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Courts and Competition Policy, the Federal Trade Commission described the impact of two recent Supreme Court cases – Verizon v. Trinko and Credit Suisse v. Billing – on antitrust enforcement in regulated industries. Howard Shelanski, the Deputy Director for Antitrust in the FTC’s Bureau of Economics, presented the testimony, which argued that federal courts should not be able to use the Trinko and Credit Suisse decisions to limit public antitrust enforcement actions brought by the FTC or U.S. Department of Justice in regulated industries where regulation has not protected competition.

The FTC vote approving the testimony was 5-0. It can be found on the FTC’s website and as a link to this press release at: http://www.ftc.gov/os/fedreg/testimony/100615antitrusttestimony.pdf. (FTC File No. P859912; the staff contact is Howard Shelanski, Bureau of Economics, 202-326-2784)

Copies of the documents mentioned in this release are available from the FTC’s website at http://www.ftc.gov and from the FTC’s Consumer Response Center, Room 130, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20580. Call toll-free: 1-877-FTC-HELP.

(FYI 24.2010.wpd)