Overview
Bates White professionals and affiliates help clients in communications and media industries with issues related to complex antitrust litigation, including horizontal conspiracies, monopolization, and vertical restraints. We advise clients on issues of market definition, market power, and procompetitive and anticompetitive behavior; and we evaluate competitive effects under antitrust and “public interest” standards. Rapid evolution of these industries, along with more recent phenomena such as cross-platform competition, can make such matters particularly complex; Bates White is equipped with the knowledge and experience to navigate these issues.
Our experts also assist clients with antitrust review of merger matters. Mergers in the communications and media industries often involve multiple jurisdictional reviews that include federal antitrust agencies, the FCC, and state regulatory agencies. We apply our experience with merger analysis to the special issues affecting these industries in order to assist merging parties, interested third parties, and government agencies. Increased globalization of communications firms means that international review is also sometimes required. Our alliance with E.CA Economics enhances our ability to provide antitrust and merger review services on an international scale.
Selected Work
- Supported DOJ expert Professor Carl Shapiro in the agency’s litigation over the proposed merger of AT&T and Time Warner.
- Prepared economic analysis on behalf of the Canadian Competition Bureau in support of its review of the acquisition of Manitoba Telecom Services, Inc. by BCE Inc.
- Provided expert analysis to the FCC on behalf of Cogent Communications regarding the proposed merger of Comcast and Time Warner Cable.
- Assessed the potential competitive effects of AT&T’s proposed $48 billion acquisition of DirecTV during an extended review of the transaction by the DOJ and FCC.
- Appeared before DOJ on behalf of a candidate divestiture buyer in connection with its investigation of AT&T's proposed acquisition of T-Mobile, which raised both horizontal and vertical concerns.
- On behalf of Bloomberg, provided economic analysis of the potential for foreclosure of programmers resulting from the Comcast/NBC Universal merger.
- Provided economic analysis to the Canadian Competition Bureau in its evaluation of the proposed acquisition of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment by Bell Canada and Rogers Communications.
- Submitted a statement addressing geographic market definition, spectrum share screens, and other issues to the FCC on behalf of the Communications Workers of America regarding the proposed merger of AT&T and T-Mobile USA.
- Conducted economic analysis on behalf of a video programming distributor about vertical foreclosure issues and other possible effects arising from the merger of Comcast and NBC Universal.
- Supported Telefónica in its takeover of E-Plus in Germany.
- Appeared before DOJ and the European Commission on behalf of a client concerned about possible effects of the proposed online advertising agreement between Yahoo! and Google.
- Appeared before the FTC on behalf of a client concerned about possible effects of Google’s proposed acquisition of DoubleClick.
- Supported expert testimony to the FCC in connection with the proposed merger of AT&T and Bellsouth.
- Provided support to a telecommunications carrier regarding its advocacy related to the acquisitions of MCI by Verizon Communications and AT&T by SBC Communications.