SUMMARY OF ANTITRUST ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS
FOR PUBLIC RELEASE
FOR MONDAY, JAN. 11, 1993 THROUGH FRIDAY, JAN. 15, 1993
1/11/93 |
U.S.
v. Trucks & Parts of Tampa, Inc. and Bruce D. Goldenberg
Criminal No.: l:93-CR-012 (N.D. Ga.)
One-count information
was filed in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, Georgia, charging
Trucks & Parts of Tampa, Inc. and its president and former
vice president, Bruce D. Goldenberg, of Tampa, Florida, with rigging
bids, in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act, for the purchase
of used trucks at a public auction in Dekalb County in October
1989.
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1/13/93 |
Department
of Justice Issues a Business Review Letter
In a letter from John
W. Clark, Acting Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Antitrust
Division, to Donald I. Baker, an attorney for AirPlus, the Department
announced that it does not intend to challenge the proposal by
AirPlus to expand its credit card program to merchants in the
United States and to allow United States' airlines to become card-issuing
members of AirPlus. AirPlus is a credit card issued by airlines
that may be used to purchase air transportation, hotel, car rental,
and other travel-related services. AirPlus recruits merchants
to accept the cards as payment for such goods and services. AirPlus
wishes to expand from its present European base to a worldwide
scope, with a regional organization to cover North and South America.
Nine international airlines currently are participants in the
program: Aer Lingus, Alitalia, Austrian Airlines, British Airways,
Finnair, Iberia, Lufthansa, Sabena and Swissair.
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1/14/93 |
Department
of Justice Issues Business Review Letter
In a letter from J.
Mark Gidley, Acting Assistant Attorney General in charge of the
Antitrust Division, to Stuart M. Pape, Esquire, the Department
announced that it does not intend to challenge a proposal by the
leading smokeless tobacco producers in the United States to form
a research joint venture to develop uniform analytical methods
for measuring the nicotine and moisture content of smokeless tobacco
products. Smokeless tobacco products include various types of
chewing tobacco and snuff such as loose leaf, plug, twist, and
moist or dry snuff. The research joint venture was formed in response
to the enactment of the Comprehensive Smokeless Tobacco Health
Education Act of 1986, which requires producers of smokeless tobacco
products to file reports as to the nicotine content of their products
and to a request by the Department of Health and Human Services
that the companies develop uniform testing methods to report the
nicotine and moisture content of their products. Gidley stated
that participation in the venture is unlikely to be anticompetitive
because the information to be exchanged among the venture participants
will be solely of a technical nature and will not relate to marketing,
product prices, sales, product development, product costs, or
other similar information that would risk raising concerns under
the antitrust laws. Participants in the joint venture include
United States Tobacco Company, The Pinkerton Tobacco Company,
National Tobacco Company, Conwood Company, R.C. Owen, Helme Tobacco
Company and House of Windsor.
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1/14/93 |
Department
of Justice Issues Business Review Letter
In a letter from J.
Mark Gidley, Acting Assistant Attorney General in charge of the
Antitrust Division, to George Velez, Esquire, General Motors Corporation
Legal Staff, the Department announced that it does not intend
to challenge the implementation of an Auto Shippers' Efficiency
Committee which will operate as a Committee of the Multilevel
Railcar Pool. The purpose of the committee will be to allow shippers
to meet to exchange information about railroad car construction,
maintenance and operating procedures and to formulate joint recommendations
designed to improve the efficiency of the Multilevel Railcar Pool.
The Multilevel Railcar Pool is a group of 20 railroads which pool
multilevel rail cars used to transport motor vehicles and use
a central distribution team to control the distribution of those
rail cars. The pool, which is authorized by the Interstate Commerce
Commission, was designed to reduce inefficient back-hauling of
empty rail cars.
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Copies of legal filings are
available from the Legal Procedure Unit, Antitrust Division, Room 3233,
Telephone No.: 514-2481.
93-17
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