Antitrust Enforcement

November 4, 2016

The FTC has charged a Pittsburgh-based manufacturer, Innovative Designs, Inc., with making false and unsubstantiated claims that its Insultex House Wrap would save consumers money by providing significant insulation without using much space. According to the FTC, Innovative Designs claims its thinner, less-expensive, house wrap has an insulation value of R-3 and its thicker, more expensive product has an R-6 value, and that its advertised R-values are based on valid scientific testing. In fact, the FTC’s complaint alleges that the R-value of both products is substantially less than one, and the test results and a certificate touted by the company are flawed and invalid. The FTC charges Innovative Designs with failing to substantiate its claims that the purported insulation value of Insultex House Wrap saves consumers money. FTC

October 31, 2016

the FTC has approved a modified final order settling charges that the $28 billion merger of Koninklijke Ahold and Delhaize Group, which together own five well-known U.S. grocery store chains, would likely be anticompetitive. Under the proposed order, first announced in July 2016, the companies are required to sell 81 stores to seven divestiture buyers. The proposed order calls for prior Commission approval before one of the divestiture buyers, Supervalu, transfers or sells an ownership interest in an acquired store to another party. This modified final order approves Supervalu’s proposed joint venture transaction with Donstekim Enterprises, LLC, regarding its acquired stores. FTC

October 28, 2016

The FTC has charged Blue Saguaro Marketing LLC, MarketingWays.com LLC, Amazon.com Associates Program; Max Results Marketing LLC, Grant Strategy Solutions, and Oro Canyon Marketing II LLC, among others, with bilking money from seniors, veterans, and debt-laden consumers by selling them a worthless money-making opportunity purportedly linked to Amazon.com, and luring them with a phony grants program. According to the FTC’s complaint, the defendants’ telemarketers falsely tell people they represent Amazon and offer, for hundreds or thousands of dollars, to create a website for them linked to Amazon.com, claiming they will earn thousands of dollars every month in commissions for sales via the website. They also falsely offer to advertise the consumer’s website and use search engine optimization to drive customers to it. FTC

October 17, 2016

A federal judge has granted the FTC request for a preliminary injunction against two people and their companies for allegedly tricking small commercial trucking businesses into paying them for federal and state motor carrier registrations by impersonating government transportation agencies, such as the U.S. Department of Transportation. According to the FTC’s complaint, James P. Lamb, Uliana Bogash, DOTAuthority.com Inc., DOTFilings.com Inc., Excelsior Enterprises International Inc. and JPL Enterprises International Inc. have taken in more than $19 million from thousands of small businesses by sending misleading robocalls, emails, and text messages that create and reinforce the false impression that they are, or are affiliated with, the USDOT, the UCR system, or another government agency. As noted in the FTC’s complaint, the defendants used official-sounding names, official-looking websites, warnings of $1,000 in civil penalties or fines for non-compliance, and threats of imminent law enforcement to trick consumers into using their registration services instead of using official government website services. FTC

October 6, 2016

The FTC will require CentraCare Health, a healthcare provider in St. Cloud, Minnesota, to release some physicians from “non-compete” contract clauses, allowing them to join competing practices, under a settlement mitigating likely anticompetitive effects from CentraCare’s proposed merger with St. Cloud Medical Group. The FTC alleges that by eliminating SCMG as a potential alternative in the St. Cloud area, the acquisition is likely to increase CentraCare’s bargaining power vis-à-vis commercial health plans, allowing it to raise reimbursement rates and secure more favorable terms. The acquisition may also result in a loss of quality and service benefits to patients. The proposed consent order will permit the acquisition to proceed, but lessens its potential anticompetitive effects by requiring CentraCare to allow a number of adult primary care, pediatric, and OB/GYN physicians to leave the health system and work for other local providers or establish a new practice in the area and to provide certain financial incentives to a number of departing physicians. FTC

October 5, 2016

Following a public comment period, the Federal Trade Commission has approved a final order settling charges that ON Semiconductor Corporation’s $2.4 billion acquisition of Fairchild Semiconductor International, Inc. is likely anticompetitive. Under the order, first announced in August 2016, the companies are required to sell ON’s Ignition IGBT business to Chicago-based manufacturer Littelfuse, Inc. within 10 days of the close of the transaction. FTC