Markets Wired

The Federal Trade Commission has appointed Theodore L. Banks, Esq., to monitor Coca-Cola Company’s compliance with the FTC order settling charges that the company’s acquisition of Coca-Cola Enterprises, its largest North American bottler, would be anticompetitive. The order, which requires Coca-Cola to restrict its access to confidential competitive business information of rival Dr Pepper Snapple Group, allows the FTC to appoint a monitor.

The Commission vote approving Banks as the monitor and the related monitor agreement was 4-0-1, with Commissioner Edith Ramirez recused. (FTC File No. 101-0107; the staff contact is Jill M. Frumin, Bureau of Competition, 202-326-2758; see press release dated September 27, 2010, at http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2010/09/coke.shtm.)

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 42.2010.wpd)