LAWSUITS NEWS & LEGAL INFORMATION
Verizon Communications Inc. Class Action Dismissed
This is a settlement for the Antitrust lawsuit.
Washington, DC: (May-23-07) Class action plaintiffs William Twombly and Lawrence Marcus filed an antitrust lawsuit against Bell Atlantic Corp., which merged with GTE Corp. in 2000 to form Verizon Communications Inc. and several other large telephone companies. Twombly and Marcus represented a class that consisted of virtually everyone who uses landline telephones in the United States. The suit alleged that the major telephone companies conspired in order to suppress market competition.
The plaintiffs' claimed that the defendants had refused to render sufficient assistance to new competitors under expansive regulatory obligations that were imposed by the Federal Communications Commission and later vacated by the courts. Further, that the defendants had refrained from meaningful, but not total, competition in one another's traditional telephone service territories, based on the theory that such entries were supposedly attractive business opportunities.
The United States Supreme Court dismissed the case on grounds that the allegations were not substantial enough to state a claim. The Supreme Court's decision reflects an important principle about protecting the freedom of firms to make unilateral decisions on what markets to enter or not enter. John Thorne, senior vice president and deputy general counsel of Verizon Communications stated that Consumers benefit when companies of every size have the right to lower prices, choose suppliers, invest, expand output, and enter new markets freely. [REUTERS: VERIZON DISMISSED]
Published on May-25-07
The plaintiffs' claimed that the defendants had refused to render sufficient assistance to new competitors under expansive regulatory obligations that were imposed by the Federal Communications Commission and later vacated by the courts. Further, that the defendants had refrained from meaningful, but not total, competition in one another's traditional telephone service territories, based on the theory that such entries were supposedly attractive business opportunities.
The United States Supreme Court dismissed the case on grounds that the allegations were not substantial enough to state a claim. The Supreme Court's decision reflects an important principle about protecting the freedom of firms to make unilateral decisions on what markets to enter or not enter. John Thorne, senior vice president and deputy general counsel of Verizon Communications stated that Consumers benefit when companies of every size have the right to lower prices, choose suppliers, invest, expand output, and enter new markets freely. [REUTERS: VERIZON DISMISSED]
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