Federal News Service Group, Inc., et al.; Proposed Consent Agreement With Analysis to Aid Public Comment

Résumé

In settlement of alleged violations of federal law prohibiting unfair acts and practices and unfair methods of competition, this consent agreement, accepted subject to final Commission approval, would prohibit, among other things, a District of Columbia corporation that sells verbatim news transcripts, and its president, from agreeing, or soliciting an agreement, to allocate customers or divide markets with any provider of news transcripts; entering into, continuing, or renewing any agreement that prevents Reuters America from competing with the respondents in the production, marketing or sale of news transcripts; renewing its news transcript supply agreement with Reuters America for five years; agreeing, or soliciting agreements, with competitors to fix or maintain resale prices for news transcripts; and requiring or pressuring any competitor to maintain or adopt any resale price for news transcripts.