Monday, November 27, 2006

Anti-Trust: Bell Atlantic v. Twombly

The case, Bell Atlantic v. Twombly, stems from the deregulation of the telecommunications industry in the 1980s and 1990s, with some experts citing it as the most important antitrust case to reach the Supreme Court in 20 years. The case involves a 2003 lawsuit on behalf of William Twombly and all individuals in the continental United States who bought local telephone and Internet service between February 1996 and the present. The suit alleged that the incumbent local telephone companies, or "Baby Bells," illegally conspired to prevent competition by excluding new local phone companies from their territories and agreeing not to compete against each other in each other's markets. Twombly's attorney had argued that the telephone companies' refusal to compete against each in each other's territories went against their economic self-interest, which could imply a conspiracy.

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