Markets Wired

Federal Trade Commission Chairwoman Edith Ramirez issued the following statement regarding the Supreme Court’s denial of certiorari in McWane Inc. v. FTC. The Court declined to review an April 2015 decision of the Eleventh Circuit upholding a Commission cease and desist order against McWane for unlawfully maintaining its monopoly in the market for domestically manufactured ductile iron pipe fittings.

“We are pleased by the Supreme Court’s action,” Ramirez said. “The Eleventh Circuit correctly affirmed the Commission’s findings that McWane possessed monopoly power and that it acted unlawfully to maintain its monopoly, to the detriment of municipal water systems and their ratepayers across the country. The case reinforces that monopolists cannot resort to anticompetitive tactics to exclude would-be rivals. ”

The Commission’s order in the case held that McWane unlawfully  maintained its monopoly by preventing its distributors from buying domestic pipe fittings from competitor Star Pipe Products Ltd., which was attempting to enter the domestic market. The policy foreclosed Star Pipe from achieving the sales necessary to compete effectively.

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