Judge Balks at Closure of AT&T, Verizon Mergers

JUDGE BALKS AT CLOSURE OF AT&T, VERIZON MERGERS
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Anne Broache]
U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan on Tuesday said he can't sign off on the mergers of SBC and AT&T and of Verizon and MCI until he gets more information. Judge Sullivan has formally asked the government and the phone companies to submit "any materials" that show why the agreements reached between the Justice Department and the telecommunications companies satisfy the "public interest" requirements of a 1974 federal antitrust law called the Tunney Act. Federal judges picked up additional authority in such proceedings in 2004, when Congress made changes to the Tunney Act. The law now says judges "shall" --rather than "may," as in the previous statute--evaluate the effectiveness of consent decrees and whether those decrees will protect the public interest. Judges are also supposed to consider the impact of the deal on "competition in the relevant market or markets." Justice Department Attorney Claude Scott said the government would attempt to distill the "millions" of documents scrutinized during their reviews of the mergers into a few affidavits for the judge. The judge's actions drew praise from Jeannine Kenney, senior policy analyst for the advocacy group Consumers Union. She said in a statement issued jointly with Comptel that the court "sent the encouraging message that it will carefully scrutinize, not merely rubberstamp, these merger agreements." Judge Sullivan gave the government until Aug. 7 to file the supporting documents with the court. Then the outside groups will have 10 days to respond to those filings, and the government will have 10 additional days to file its own response.
http://news.com.com/Judge+balks+at+closure+of+AT38T%2C+Verizon+mergers/2...

* Judge Seeks More Data On 2 Telecom Deals
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/25/AR200607...