DoJ shouldn’t act on the proposed AT&T-BellSouth merger until a f...
DoJ shouldn’t act on the proposed AT&T-BellSouth merger until a federal judge finishes a Tunney Act review of DoJ’s approvals of 2 earlier Bell mergers, House Judiciary Committee Chmn. Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) and ranking minority member Conyers (D-Mich.) said in…
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a letter to U.S. Attorney Gen. Alberto Gonzales. U.S. Dist. Judge Emmet Sullivan, D.C., is reviewing whether DoJ consent decrees that led to last year’s approval of the SBC-AT&T and Verizon-MCI mergers were in the public interest. The new merger raises the same question as those under review, Sensenbrenner and Conyers said: “Whether a proposed merger would produce competitive harm in the local private line market and what remedies could address this harm.” The court decision could affect the AT&T-BellSouth merger, so DoJ should “refrain from issuing any final decision in the proposed AT&T/BellSouth merger until the court issues its public interest determination,” the Sept. 27 letter said. Sen. Leahy (D-Vt.), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Kohl (D-Wis.), ranking member of the Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee, sent an even stronger letter arguing that mergers shouldn’t close until their Tunney Act reviews are done. For example, the letter said, the Verizon-MCI merger closed Jan. 6 but the court review continues. “Serious questions arise as to whether [allowing] the parties [to close] their deals in advance of Tunney Act review effectively negates the requirement of public interest judicial review,” the letter said. Meanwhile, Kohl and Senate Antitrust Subcommittee Chmn. DeWine (R-Ohio) urged DoJ and FCC scrutiny of “competition and communications policy issues” raised by the AT&T-BellSouth merger. The merger would combine “two of the four remaining” Bells, the Sept. 28 letter said. DoJ and the FCC should “consider adopting conditions to approval of the merger if they are necessary to help ensure that the telecommunications market remains open to new sources of competition,” the letter said. “The issue most deserving of close scrutiny is the merger’s potential effect on the availability of wireless spectrum to be used for broadband service,” said the letter sent to Asst. Attorney Gen. Thomas Barnett and FCC Chmn. Martin. The AT&T-BellSouth merger “is proceeding along a separate path” from the Tunney Act review, a spokesman said. “Already, all 18 states that have been required to review our merger with BellSouth have approved it unconditionally,” he said: “We're confident the FCC and DoJ will recognize the significant consumer and public interest benefits, too.”