Fergie's Tech Blog

U.S. Supreme Court to Review Telecom Antitrust Case

A Reuters newswire article, via The Washington Post, reports that:

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to consider an appeal by the largest U.S. telephone carriers aiming to dismiss a class-action antitrust suit against them.

The high court granted the companies' petition to review an appeals court ruling that held the class-action suit filed against Verizon Communications Inc., BellSouth Corp., Qwest Communications International Inc. and AT&T Inc. could proceed even without evidence to back up claims of an anti-competitive conspiracy.

The Supreme Court will hear arguments in the case and then issue a decision during its upcoming term, which begins in October.

The lawsuit said the telecommunications companies conspired not to compete against one another in their respective geographic markets for local telephone and high-speed Internet services and prevented competitors from entering those markets.

posted by Fergie @ 6/26/2006 09:24:00 AM