Supreme Court Hears Views In Telecom Competition Case

SUPREME COURT HEARS VIEWS IN TELECOM COMPETITION CASE
[SOURCE: Technology Daily 11/27, AUTHOR: Andrew Noyes]
The practice of price-fixing without a verbal agreement between competitors was the focus of a case heard by the Supreme Court. The dispute involves dominant telephone companies accused of not helping to facilitate competition in local markets. Such "conscious parallelism," several justices agreed, is commonplace in highly competitive sectors in the U.S. economy. Under such an arrangement, one firm takes the lead in hiking prices and others follow suit with the shared belief that greater profits will benefit them all. At issue in the case, Bell Atlantic v. Twombly, is how much evidence plaintiffs must present in conspiracy allegations to pursue litigation. The 2002 consumer class action suit claimed that BellSouth, Qwest Communications, SBC and Verizon Communications conspired to violate antitrust law by divvying up service areas. An American Bar Association synopsis characterizes the case as the most important antitrust matter to reach the Supreme Court since a 1986 dispute that pitted Japanese television makers against U.S.-based competitors.
http://www.njtelecomupdate.com/lenya/telco/live/tb-OEKS1164736361113.html