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1

1UNITED STATES FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION

2and

3UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

4

5

6SHERMAN ACT SECTION 2 JOINT HEARING

7BUSINESS TESTIMONY

8TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2007

9

10

11HELD AT:

12UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

13GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

14EXECUTIVE CENTER - 450

15NORTH CITYFRONT PLAZA DRIVE

16CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 60611

179:30 A.M. TO 4:00 P.M.

18

19

20

21

22

23Reported and Transcribed by:

24PAMELA A. STAFFORD, CSR, RMR

25

2

1APPEARANCES:

2

3MODERATORS:

4

5Morning Session:

6JAIME TARONJI, JR.

7Attorney, Policy Studies,

8Federal Trade Commission

9and

10JOSEPH J. MATELIS, II

11Attorney Advisor, Legal Policy Section

12Antitrust Division, Department of Justice

13 and

14WILLIAM COHEN

15Deputy General Counsel for Policy Studies

16Federal Trade Commission

17

18

19PANELISTS:

20

21Morning Session:

22David Balto

23Patrick Sheller

24Ron Stern

25

3

1APPEARANCES CONTINUED:

2

3MODERATORS:

4

5Afternoon Session:

6JOSEPH J. MATELIS, II

7Attorney Advisor, Legal Policy Section

8Antitrust Division, Department of Justice

9and

10KAREN GRIMM,

11Assistant General Counsel for Policy Studies

12Federal Trade Commission

13

14

15PANELISTS:

16

17Afternoon Session:

18Sean Heather

19Bruce Sewell

20Bruce Wark

21

22

23

24

25

4

1REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS

2FEBRUARY 13, 2007

3MR. TARONJI: Good morning.

4I'm Jim Taronji from the Federal Trade

5Commission. I'm one of the moderators for

6this morning's session. I'm joined this

7morning by Bill Cohen, Deputy General Counsel

8for Policy Studies at the Federal Trade

9Commission. Our other co-moderator today is

10Joe Matelis from the Antitrust Division of

11the U.S. Department of Justice.

12Before we start today, let me

13cover a few housekeeping matters. As a

14courtesy to our speakers, please turn off

15your cell phones, Blackberries, and other

16devices, or put them on vibrate. And I will

17do that myself.

18Finally, we request that the

19audience not ask any questions or make

20comments during the hearings. Thank you.

21Before introducing our

22speakers, I would like to first thank the

23University of Chicago Graduate School of

24Business for hosting these joint FTC/DOJ

25hearings to solicit business testimony on

5

1single-firm conduct under Section 2 of the

2Sherman Act. In particular, I would like to

3thank Dean Ted Snyder and the staff of

4the Gleacher Center for offering us their

5facilities and for making the necessary

6arrangements for us to hold these

7hearings.

8And finally, I would like to

9thank my FTC and DOJ colleagues as well as

10the FTC's Midwest regional office who have

11worked very hard to put together these

12hearings in the Windy City, in the cold Windy

13City.

14We are honored to have

15assembled a distinguished group of panelists

16from a number of companies and associations

17that have agreed to offer their testimony in

18connection with these hearings. These

19panelists will provide their perspectives on

20how companies operate within the complex area

21of Sherman Section 2 jurisprudence,

22including for some companies how they

23navigate not only the U.S. application of

24antitrust laws to single-firm conduct, but

25that of the diverse antitrust regimes around

6

1the world.

2Our panelists this morning

3are David Balto for the Generic

4Pharmaceutical Association, Patrick Sheller

5from Kodak, and Ron Stern from G.E.

6Our format this morning will

7be as follows. Each speaker will make a 20-

8to 25-minute presentation. We will then take

9a 15-minute break. After the break, we will

10reconvene and have a moderated discussion

11with our panelists.

12These hearings in Chicago are

13an important component of the joint FTC and

14Antitrust Division hearings on single-firm

15conduct under Section 2 of the Sherman Act.

16They are designed to identify areas where

17single-firm conduct is causing competitive

18harm, areas where antitrust enforcement may

19be chilling desirable activity, and areas

20where additional guidance would be most

21valuable.

22FTC chairman, Deborah Majoras

23made it clear at the opening session of these

24hearings that she wanted to hear from

25businesses, either through their executives

7

1or their legal advisers. As Chairman Majoras

2said, and I'll paraphrase, we want these

3panels to discuss business conduct from the

4market perspective from the ground up. That

5is, examine why and when firms engage in it,

6how they do it, and what effect it produces

7for the firm, for other firms, customers and

8competitors and for consumers. We want these

9discussions to include knowledgeable business

10people or their legal advisers.

11Over these last eight months

12we have held hearings on specific types of

13business conduct, such as predatory pricing,

14refusals to deal, bundled and loyalty

15discounts, tying arrangements, exclusive

16dealing, and misleading and deceptive

17conduct.

18Some of these panels have

19included business executives or their legal

20advisers. In addition, we've covered some

21general areas, such as business strategy,

22business history, and economic empirical

23studies.

24The sessions today are

25designed to further FTC Chairman Majoras's

8

1goal to obtain as much insight and real-world

2experience as possible from business

3representatives.

4This is the second set of

5hearings that have specifically been devoted

6to obtaining testimony from company

7representatives and associations. The first

8set of business testimony hearings were in

9Berkeley, California on January 30th, 2007.

10We look forward to hearing

11the panelists' comments and to the

12round-table discussion. I want to thank all

13of them for agreeing to participate in

14today's hearings. We know that it takes a

15lot of time to prepare for these hearings.

16So again, thank you for your time and

17efforts.

18I would now like to turn it

19over to my colleague and co-moderator Joe

20Matelis from the Antitrust Division for any

21remarks he would like to make. Joe.

22MR. MATELIS: Thank you, Jim.

23The Department of Justice's Antitrust

24Division is very pleased to participate in

25today's hearing. In the single-firm conduct

9

1hearings we have held to date, we have

2benefitted from the insights of many

3highly-skilled antitrust attorneys and

4economists.

5Today's hearing, as well as

6the sessions held last month in Berkeley,

7California, grew out of the belief that we

8could also learn much about single-firm

9conduct from businesses. Our panelists today

10are the people who help devise and implement

11business plans, aware that their firm's

12unilateral conduct may be challenged in

13private or government litigation and by

14foreign competition authorities. Their

15companies are also directly affected by the

16conduct of other firms.

17Whether you've had occasion

18to view Section 2 of the Sherman Act as a

19sword directed at the heart of your business

20or as a shield protecting you from

21anticompetitive conduct of others, we look

22forward to hearing from you today.

23On behalf of the Antitrust

24Division, I would also like to take this

25opportunity to thank the Gleacher Center and

10

1the University of Chicago Graduate School of

2Business for hosting these hearings. Also on

3behalf of the Division, I'd like to thank

4David, Patrick, and Ron for volunteering your

5time today. We know that these hearings take

6a lot of effort, especially when traveling to

7Chicago in February. And we're very grateful

8for a valuable public service that you're

9rendering. Finally, I'd also like to thank

10Jim and Bill and their colleagues at the

11Federal Trade Commission for all their hard

12work organizing today's hearing. Thanks.

13MR. TARONJI: Thank you, Joe.

14Our first speaker this

15morning is David Balto. David Balto has

16practiced antitrust law for over 20 years,

17both at the Federal Trade Commission and the

18Antitrust Division. At the FTC he was the

19attorney adviser to Chairman Pitofsky and

20assistant director for policy and evaluation

21in the Bureau of Competition. He helped

22guide many of the FTC's pharmaceutical and

23health care enforcement efforts, including

24challenging patent settlement agreements.

25David has written extensively

11

1on antitrust and health care competition and

2is the vice chair of the ABA Antitrust

3Section Federal Civil Enforcement Committee.

4He graduated from Northeastern University

5School of Law and the University of

6Minnesota. And David is speaking today on

7behalf of the Generic Pharmaceutical

8Association. David.

9MR. BALTO: Thank you, Joe.

10I want to express my privilege for -- to

11come here and testify in these hearings. And

12I want to mention on that that my remarks

13today are my own and don't necessarily

14reflect the remarks -- should not necessarily

15be attributed to the Generic Pharmaceutical

16Association or any of its members.

17Let me set out the outlines

18of my testimony. I want to start off with

19one indisputable fact, hopefully indisputable

20fact, the importance of generic competition

21in the market.

22I'm then going to try to

23talk about how pharmaceutical markets are

24different than other types of markets and why

25that should make a difference in the analysis

12

1of single-firm conduct.

2I'm then going to talk about

3two forms of anticompetitive conduct by

4branded pharmaceutical companies and how

5those forms of conduct should be analyzed,

6and then perhaps close with some suggestions.

7Let me begin with the indisputable.

8Generic competition benefits

9every consumer in the United States. Generic

10drugs sell for about 70 percent less than

11branded drugs. They account for 56 percent

12of all prescriptions and less than 13 percent

13of all pharmaceutical expenditures.

14The last time TEO studied

15this issue in 1994 they found that generic

16drugs saved consumers between 8 and $10

17billion a year at a time when generic

18substitution was vastly lower than it is

19today.

20Antitrust enforcement in the

21generic drug industry is essential. Let me

22put this into context. Today you can walk

23out of this hearing room and go to your

24local pharmacy and buy a generic form of

25Remeron, Relafen, Buspar, Taxol, Augmentin,

13

1Paxil, Coumadin, and Platinol. For each of

2these drugs, the branded pharmaceutical firm,

3a dominant firm attempted to extend its

4monopoly through some form of alleged

5exclusionary conduct.

6In some cases they filed sham

7petitions before the FDA. In some cases they

8engaged in sham litigation. In other cases

9they engaged in inequitable conduct before

10the Patent and Trademark Office.

11All together, these drugs

12accounted for more that $10 billion of

13purchases by U.S. consumers. And because of

14enforcement actions taken by the Federal

15Trade Commission, the state attorneys

16general, and private antitrust attorneys,

17these actions were stopped. And today's

18consumers save billions of dollars because of

19those enforcement actions.

20Policing exclusionary conduct

21by branded pharmaceutical companies could not

22be a greater priority. In the next four

23years, over $60 billion of branded

24pharmaceuticals will go off patent.

25Unfortunately, the pharmaceutical industry

14

1offers many opportunities for dominant

2branded firms to manipulate a highly complex

3regulatory system to secure monopoly profits,

4not through superior foresight, industry, and

5innovations, but by finding loopholes to

6delay competition.

7Now, let's start off with why

8pharmaceuticals are different. Now, my

9colleagues on the panel today are going to

10talk about the need for simple rules.

11They're going to talk about the need for

12going and creating bright-line tests so it

13will be easier for their business people to

14do what they're supposed to do, compete in

15the marketplace. As an antitrust

16practitioner, I can appreciate their

17perspective.

18However, I think that the

19Commission and the Antitrust Division should

20be extremely cautious about simple rules for

21dominant firms. As Justice Scalia has

22observed, the conduct of a dominant firm is

23viewed through a special lens. Behavior that

24might otherwise not be of concern under the

25antitrust laws can take on exclusionary

15

1connotations when practiced by the

2monopolist.

3Now, I think there are four

4factors in the pharmaceutical industry that

5should make people cautious about bright-line

6rules in this industry. First,

7pharmaceuticals are heavily regulated; and as

8my testimony sets forward, this provides a

9remarkable number of opportunities for

10engaging in what's been called by the FTC

11cheap exclusion.

12Second, who is the buyer?

13Now, knowing who the buyer is is critical to

14defining markets and determining market power

15and also oftentimes to determine whether or

16not certain parties have standing. But in

17the pharmaceutical industry is the ultimate

18buyer the consumer, the insurance company,

19the pharmaceutical benefit manager, the

20physician who prescribes the drugs, or a

21combination of all of these?

22Third, pharmaceuticals have

23high fixed costs but very low average

24variable costs. And so when my colleagues

25today go and talk about bright-line rules for

16

1predatory pricing, those might not apply that

2well in a setting with that kind of cost

3structure.

4Then finally, forms of

5distribution are complex. Pharmaceuticals

6are distributed through all these numerous

7different intermediaries, and not all

8distribution mechanisms are the same. Maybe

9in the questioning period we'll go and talk

10about distribution exclusivity cases where I

11can address some of these ideas.

12Now, I want to talk today

13about two form -- fortunately through a

14combination of the FTC's and State Attorneys

15General enforcement actions, the FTC's

16advocacy to Congress, Congressional

17legislation, many of the recipe -- the recipe

18book for anticompetitive conduct by dominant

19pharmaceutical companies has basically been

20thrown out. But like all good cooks, the

21pharmaceutical companies have come up with

22new forms of anticompetitive conduct, and I

23wanted to talk about two of them today to

24illustrate the importance of a couple things,

25the importance of antitrust enforcement, the

17

1importance of a balanced rule of reason

2analysis in looking at exclusionary conduct

3and staying away from per se bright-line

4rules. And those two types of conduct are

5product line extensions and abuse of the

6regulatory process.

7Now, let me explain product

8line extensions. As in any other area, there

9are changes in products. We all try to

10improve our products. One of the key things

11to remember here is that for a generic firm

12to enter, it is essential for there to be a

13branded firm that is listed and been approved

14by the Food and Drug Administration. And the

15way this process almost invariably works is

16that the generic firm goes and copies a

17branded drug. The branded drug goes off

18patent or the generic firm prevails in patent

19litigation, and then the generic firm enters.

20But sometimes the product

21line extensions can have anticompetitive

22effects. The FTC recognized this in the

23merger of Cima and Cephalon. Cephalon made a

24branded drug that was used to treat pain when

25you underwent cancer treatments. It was

18

1acquiring Cima which was developing an

2alternative product. The FTC uncovered in

3the course of its investigation that part of

4the reason for the acquisition was a

5product-switching plan by Cephalon. They

6planned, once they acquired Cima, to go and

7take the Cephalon product out of the market,

8to delist it. And in fact, that would have

9prevented generic firms from being able to

10enter the market for this drug.

11In order to resolve the

12competitive concerns posed by this merger,

13the FTC required Cephalon to sponsor generic

14entry on the form of that drug that it

15manufactured.

16Now, if you were to read one

17case in the area of pharmaceutical antitrust,

18I suggest you read the case of Abbott versus

19Teva. Now, this case will remind you of the

20cartoon in Peanuts where Linus keeps coming

21up to try to kick the football. And every

22time Linus goes and tries to kick the

23football, Lucy picks up the football, and he

24misses it and falls flat on his back.

25There's a drug called Tricor

19

1which is used to lower cholesterol. It's am

2almost billion dollar drug. Impax and Teva

3were developing a generic alternative. Each

4time they were poised to enter, the branded

5pharmaceutical manufacturer made some small

6change to the product, thus preventing them

7from being able to enter. The last change

8was changing the product from a capsule

9version to a tablet version. The tablet

10version was supposedly superior because it

11didn't have to be taken with food.

12But Abbott didn't just change

13the product. After the tablet formulation

14was approved, it stopped selling the Tricor

15capsules. It bought up all the excess Tricor

16capsules. And then there's this important

17register. It's called the National Drug Data

18File. And the only way you can get a

19generic drug into the market is if it's

20listed in the NDDF. And what Abbott did is

21it listed -- changed the code for Tricor

22capsules in the National Drug Data File to

23obsolete.

24Anyway, so let's go to the

25litigation. Abbott and Teva sued, along with

20

1a group of buyers of drugs. And the

2defendants basically say, you know, this is a

3product improvement. There is no role for

4antitrust here. There is a per se legal

5rule. In order to demonstrate a violation,

6they would have to show that quote: The

7innovator knew before introducing the

8improvement into the market that it was

9absolutely no better than the prior version,

10and that the only purpose of the innovation

11was to eliminate the complementary product of

12a rival. That was the standard articulated

13by Abbott.

14And you know, there was case

15law that supported Abbott's position, though

16not in the pharmaceutical industry. Now,

17rather than adopting the rule of a per se

18legality, the Court went back to the test

19articulated by the D.C. Circuit in Microsoft

20which suggests a rule of reason balancing

21test. And it said the per se rule as

22proposed by the defendants presupposes an

23open market where the merits of any new

24product can be tested by unfettered consumer

25choice. But here, consumers were not

21

1presented with a choice between the products.

2Instead, they eliminated that choice by

3removing the old formulations of the

4products.

5Now, I know my colleagues on

6the panel, their hair is about to stand up

7at this point because what this Court has

8basically suggested is that there is a duty

9to deal. That a dominant firm in some sense

10has some kind of obligation, a duty to deal,

11with its rivals. How could that be? Well,

12let's see what the Court said.

13It said, A co-monopolist is

14not free to take certain actions that a

15company in a competitive or even

16oligopolistic market may take because there

17is no market restraint on a monopolist's

18behavior, harkening back to Justice Scalia's

19idea that I mentioned before.

20So in this case where the

21dominant firm went beyond a simple product

22innovation, but also created obstacles for

23the other firms to effectively enter the

24market, that was a violation.

25Now, there's a similar case

22

1in the E.U. and in Canada involving Astra Zeneca,

2the drug Lobec. In this case violations were

3found in both of those jurisdictions. In

4that case what happened was as the patents on

5the drug were expiring, Astra Zeneca filed

6for additional patents, but these were

7patents that really weren't used on improving

8the drug. These were just additional patents

9to create the additional obstacles. And

10again, antitrust violations were found.

11The most interesting case

12here is a case that was just filed in the

13past year or so, and it involves the very

14well-known conversion of the drug Prilosec to

15Nexium as Prilosec was losing its patent

16protection. This again involved Astra

17Zeneca. This is something like a $4

18billion-a-year drug.

19 In the alleged

20anticompetitive conduct it was said, up to 18

21months before Astra Zeneca was about to lose

22exclusivity it stopped promoting the drug,

23and instead, started to make negative claims

24about the drug. Now, I don't know about you

25or me, but I just don't know when people

23

1start making negative claims about their

2drugs.

3More important than just

4creating Nexium, they also effectively

5withdrew Prilosec from the market, so it was

6impossible for managed care organizations to

7go and sort of continue to contract for

8Prilosec.

9And so when generic Prilosec

10was about to arise, there was no possibility

11for it to substitute for branded Prilosec.

12And one of the most

13interesting issues and maybe something worth

14discussing later on is the fact, as alleged,

15that Nexium was no improvement on Prilosec.

16Let's go on to the issue of

17petitioning and litigation. You know, one of

18the most important achievements of the

19Federal Trade Commission has been the focus

20on sham petitioning and the use of regulatory

21processes to create competitive harm.

22Probably the case in which they've brought

23the most consumer benefits was the Unocal

24case in which it attacked sham petitioning by

25Unocal before the California Resources Board

24

1that costs consumers in California over $500

2million annually.

3Sham petitioning is a serious

4problem. As the FTC's recent staff report on

5the Noerr-Pennington Doctrine observed: One

6of the most effective ways for parties to

7acquire or maintain market power is through

8the abuse of governmental processes. The

9cost of the party engaging in such abuse is

10typically minimal, while the anticompetitive

11effects resulting from such abuse are often

12significant and durable.

13Anticompetitive conduct

14through regulatory abuse can be especially

15pernicious if, God forbid, Kodak or GE were

16to engage in any kind of abusive conduct.

17If they exploited their dominant power, it

18would be short lived. Why? Because there are

19numerous firms poised to go and battle them

20for that role of king of the hill. But when

21your job as king of the hill was gained

22through abuse of the regulatory process, no

23natural force can displace you. That's why

24abuse of the regulatory systems is so

25pernicious.

25

1This is especially the case

2in the pharmaceutical industry. The cases I

3identified at the beginning of my testimony

4were cases which were largely based on abuse

5of the regulatory system.

6Almost 30 years ago, Judge

7Bork observed that predation by abuse of

8governmental procedures, including

9administrative and judicial processes,

10presents an increasingly dangerous threat to

11competition.

12No statement could be more on

13point for the anticompetitive conduct in the

14pharmaceutical industry and the practice of

15so-called citizen petitions. The FDA, like

16many regulatory agencies, offers the

17opportunity for citizens to petition them to

18raise questions about safety and efficacy and

19other issues. And that process is obviously

20well intentioned, but it's abused to an

21increasingly significant extent.

22What happens is again, when a

23generic company is poised to enter the

24market, the brand company will file a

25frivolous petition on the eve of FDA

26

1approval. That may be despite the fact that

2the FDA may have granted a tentative

3approval, that maybe despite the fact that

4similar petitions have already been filed.

5The brand strategy is just simply delay the

6generic drug from the market. And you can

7imagine when you're talking about drugs in

8which the amount of profits amount to 10 to

9$20 million a day, this could be a very

10attractive opportunity.

11The FDA citizen petition

12process provides significant opportunities for

13deception. There are no requirements for

14proof of the accusations made in the

15petition. No requirements for certification

16of the accuracy of the information. There

17are no penalties for inaccurate or improper

18filings. There are no limits on the number

19of filings that may be filed. Some petitions

20contain little or no evidence or rely on

21obsolete, irrelevant, or erroneous

22information.

23The FDA has even noted the

24fact that they've seen several examples of

25citizen petitions seemingly designed to delay

27

1the approval of generic approval.

2So let's look at the numbers.

3You know, if I wanted to make it to Wrigley

4Field this spring, if I wanted to join the

5Cubs for spring training, I'd want to have a

6pretty good batting average. Otherwise, they

7wouldn't look at me.

8What's the batting average on

9citizen petitions? Since the Medicare

10Monitorization Act was passed in 2003, there

11have been 45 citizen petitions filed

12challenging the conduct trying to delay the

13entry of generic drugs. 45. 21 of these

14have been resolved. One has been resolved in

15the favor of the petitioner. One. 20 have

16been denied.

17Now, if I'm batting at .05

18percent, I'm not going to get much of a

19try-out at Wrigley Field this spring. None

20of the last-minute -- many of these petitions

21were filed within the four-month period prior

22-- half of them were filed in the four-month

23prior period to the entry of the drug. Did

24any of those succeed? None. Not one.

25Well, how much do they delay

28

1things? Those late-filed petitions delayed

2things an average of ten months. And in one

3case, the amount of delay cost consumers an

4estimated $7 million a year.

5Is this a small problem?

6No. According to the statistics of the FDA,

7there's been a 50 percent increase in the

8number of citizen petitions they have

9received. And there are about 170 citizen

10petitions pending compared to only 90 in

111999.

12Now, one of the most

13illuminating observations of the FTC report

14on the Noerr-Pennington Doctrine was its

15observation about how serial sham litigation

16conduct should be analyzed. I think the FTC

17should go and apply the ideas that it has

18and the expertise it's developed, both in

19that report and in its enforcement action in

20Unocal to give a very serious look at the

21citizen petition process. Let me conclude.

22Antitrust plays a vital role

23in maintaining rivalry as the lone star of

24the marketplace. Competition is critically

25important where many of the factors

29

1identified earlier can forestall competition.

2The FTC, State Attorneys

3General, and private antitrust lawyers have

4played an important role in protecting

5pharmaceutical markets from artificial

6barriers to competition, and I hope these

7hearings keep Section 2 as a robust statute

8so that it can continue to be used to

9protect the interest of consumers and

10competitors in this vital market. Thank you.

11(Applause)

12MR. TARONJI: Thank you,

13David. Our next speaker is Patrick Sheller.

14Patrick is the chief compliance officer for

15Eastman Kodak Company. In that capacity he

16is responsible for Kodak's code of conduct

17and internal investigations.

18Prior to his current

19assignment, Patrick held a variety of

20business positions and was Kodak's chief

21antitrust counsel and also was involved in

22legal matters in Europe.

23Prior to Kodak he was in

24private practice with a law firm that is now

25known as McKenna, Long & Aldridge, and is a

30

1former Federal Trade Commission attorney,

2having worked in the Bureau of Competition

3and as attorney adviser to Chairman Daniel

4Oliver. He is a graduate of St. Lawrence

5University and the Albany Law School at Union

6University. Patrick.

7MR. SHELLER: I want to

8thank the Department of Justice and the FTC

9for the opportunity to speak to you today.

10It's an important time in antitrust

11law for our economy, and it's a particularly

12important time for Kodak. I suspect one

13of the reasons we were invited to participate

14in these hearings is Kodak's well documented

15experience with the Section 2 enforcement

16which began in 1921 when an investigation by

17the Department of Justice was settled through

18a consent decree which prohibited Kodak, among

19other things, from selling a fighting

20brand of consumer film, also known as

21private-label film.

22In 1954 we settled an

23investigation with the Department of Justice.

24This matter involved alleged tying of consumer

25color negative film with photo processing

31

1services. Under this consent decree we

2were prohibited from selling these two

3items under a single price.

4In 1979 our luck turned a

5bit. We benefitted from a primarily favorable

6ruling by the Second Circuit in the Berkey

7Photo case where one of our competitors

8challenged Kodak's introduction of the 110

9photographic system that included a camera,

10specially formatted film, and a new photo

11processing service.

12One of the key rulings in

13that case was that a monopolist has no

14obligation to predisclose new products to a

15competitor. And, to the extent that a

16monopolist engages in truthful advertising,

17that conduct does not offend Section 2.

18In 1991 our luck turned in

19the other direction again with the Supreme

20Court's decision in the ITS v. Kodak

21case. This was an action brought by

22independent service organizations that were

23competing against Kodak in the service of

24photocopiers and micrographics units. It

25was in the ITS case that the court established

32

1the so-called single-brand derivative

2aftermarket; the notion being that once a

3customer chooses to purchase an expensive

4item of capital equipment, they're now locked

5into that particular brand or manufacturer.

6Whether or not that manufacturer has

7market power in the primary market for

8photocopiers, for example, was determined to

9be irrelevant to the Supreme Court. The ITS

10case went back to the trial court on remand,

11and I'll speak more to the trial in a minute.

12In 1994 Kodak challenged some

13aspects of the 1921 and 1954 consent decrees.

14We were successful in overturning the private

15label restriction and the prohibition on

16linking film with photo finishing sales,

17primarily because we were able to demonstrate

18to the District Court and to the Second Circuit

19that market conditions had changed

20significantly.

21By 1994, Kodak was

22competing on a global basis with a number of

23foreign suppliers as opposed to the market

24conditions that existed when these consent

25decrees were entered into.

33

1Finally, in 1996 the

2Ninth Circuit heard Kodak's appeal

3of the jury verdict in the ITS case. The

4jury found that we had engaged in an unlawful

5refusal to deal by refusing to provide

6patented and copyrighted parts and copyrighted

7diagnostic software and manuals to ISO's.

8The key ruling in that case,

9for purposes of my remarks today, was

10that an IP owner faces restrictions on its

11ability to refuse to deal with ISOs by refusing

12to license its IP.

13The Ninth Circuit picked up

14on the First Circuit's decision in the Data

15General case in holding that there is a

16presumption in favor of an IP owner, that

17it has a legitimate business justification

18for refusing to deal with a rival. But that

19presumption can be overcome by evidence that

20the IP owner had an anticompetitive intent. The

219th circuit's ruling essentially opens the door

22to ISO's to come up with evidence in the form of

23internal documents showing that the IP owner

24was trying to keep out competition through

25its decision to refuse to deal.

34

1Now, the history of Kodak's

2experience with Section 2 parallels in many

3ways the evolution of our company, our

4technology, and our business model.

5Beginning in the 1880's and through the

670's, the focus of our business was on

7consumables. We primarily sold film

8products, paper products, and chemicals.

9We engaged in the sort of razor/razor blade

10model of selling cameras in order to generate

11more film sales.

12The company began to

13diversify its portfolio in the late 60's to

141970's, and we began to offer more expensive

15items of capital equipment such as

16photocopiers, micrographics equipment, and

17graphic arts equipment. And in this sense

18our business model began to change to

19offering hardware plus aftermarket service.

20It was in this context that the ITS case

21arose.

22We are now in the process of

23a monumental shift in the business model of

24our company as we try to become a digital

25company as opposed to an analog technology player.

35

1The focus of our business going forward is

2going to be on selling solutions. Solution

3selling is very common in the digital world

4where companies will bundle a portfolio of

5offerings that include hardware, software,

6consumables, consulting services, and

7aftermarket service into a single price to

8sell to customers who demand an end-to-end

9solution.

10Our sales focus going forward

11will be on digital products such as photo

12printer kiosks, image centers. We announced

13last week the introduction of a new line of

14consumer ink-jet printers, which means Kodak will

15now be competing in a new market. We will also

16offer Digital cameras, media ink, and so forth.

17Elements of the old

18business models still remain at Kodak. We

19will continue to sell film. But our focus

20will be on solution sales, and there will be

21be a real emphasis within the company on the

22ability to sell in this environment.

23We face a number of

24challenges as we try to participate in the

25digital world. Some critical success

36

1factors to our new digital model are, first

2of all, that we rapidly innovate and

3develop new technology to commercialize

4new products. Digital companies constantly

5introduce new versions of their products.

6We have to keep pace in this fast-moving

7environment. And in that sense, intellectual

8property has become increasingly important to

9Kodak.

10We need to be able to

11protect our research and development

12investments, wherever possible, through patents

13and copyrights, and we need to be able to

14protect these assets in a way that doesn't

15offend the antitrust laws.

16One of our key strategies

17going forward is to monetize our intellectual

18properties. Kodak has, for the last

19several years, entered into numerous

20licensing agreements with other digital

21players in the industry, and we need to be

22able to go about that licensing activity

23without fear of antitrust concerns, as

24I'll talk about in a few minutes.

25And finally, as I mentioned,

37

1solution selling is critical to our success

2in the digital world. A good example is

3our graphic communications business which

4sells graphic solutions to printing firms.

5These solutions include software, work-flow

6software, hardware, consumables, consulting

7services, and aftermarket service.

8So what are some of the

9Section 2 impediments to our success in this

10new digital world? First of all, we

11would encourage the antitrust agencies and

12the courts to recognize the importance of

13market changes. As we saw with our attempt

14to overturn the 1921 and 1954 consent

15decrees, we were forced to litigate with the

16Department of Justice over the issue of

17whether Kodak was competing in a worldwide

18market versus a domestic market.

19And to the extent that

20further challenges arise to our practices in

21the film environment, we would encourage the

22agencies and the courts to recognize the

23substantial influence of digital technologies

24on markets that were previously dominated

25by film.

38

1As we saw literally overnight

2earlier in this decade, our film business

3began to decline dramatically in the year

42001. We initially thought it was a result

5of reduced demand following the 9/11 attacks,

6but the market never came back. It was because

7many customers had decided to convert from film

8to digital. And many customers that make this

9conversion never come back to film.

10Another impediment to our

11success in the digital world relates to the

12antitrust line between tying and bundling. This

13line is becoming increasingly blurred as a

14result of the LePage's and other decisions, which

15I'll speak to more in a few minutes.

16 Finally, obstacles to our

17ability to monetize our intellectual property

18investments exist in the form of cases like the

19Ninth Circuit's decision in the ITS case and

20precedents in the European Union such as

21the McGill case and the INS Health case where

22the Commission required compulsory licensing

23licensing by intellectual property owners.

24Let me first turn to the

25LePage's decision and the uncertainty that

39

1case has left companies like Kodak with. While

2the Third Circuit had an opportunity to

3clarify the application of Section 2 in the

4area of bundled discounts, in our view it

5squandered that opportunity by deciding the

6case on its narrow set of facts. The court

7ruled said that 3M's practice of bundling its

8branded Scotch tape with both private-label

93M tape and with other 3M products caused

10injury to its competitor, LePage's, and

11therefore offended Section 2.

12The only parameters that

13we are able to draw from the LePage's decision

14in terms of an alleged monopolist's ability

15to engage in pricing activities are, first of

16all, that single-product volume discounts are

17permissible. The court made that clear. But

18what's at risk following the 3M/LePage's

19decision, are discounts linking products

20across multiple markets where an alleged

21dominant product is involved, and also

22discounts linking a dominant product

23with others across a single product

24line, such as the linking branded and

25private-label tape. We are left with

40

1no coherent standard with which to

2evaluate bundled pricing under the

3LePage's decision.

4We would submit there were

5better alternative paths that the Third

6Circuit could have taken in evaluating the

7case against 3M. The Eighth Circuit's

8decision in Concord Boat applied the Brooke

9Group decision by the Supreme Court to find

10that as long as single-product discounts are

11above cost, they should not be considered

12exclusionary under Section 2.

13It would have also been helpful

14if the court had given some thought to the

15Ortho Diagnostic's Systems case by the Southern

16District of New York where the court articulated

17its analysis of the alleged bundling by asking

18whether an equally efficient competitor to the

19monopolist could profitably match the bundled

20price the in the market. That would have

21been an arguably more rational test to apply.

22While we could previously

23rely on the very clear distinction between

24tying on the one hand where a monopolist

25tries to force the purchase of a second

41

1non-monopoly product, we now have to deal with a

2precedent that articulates no coherent standard

3such that bundled discounts now come under scrutiny.

4As I said before, bundling is very important to our

5ability to offer solution sales.

6Turning to the issue of IP

7rights, as I mentioned, a very importantbr>
8strategy of Kodak going forward is our ability

9to monetize our IP portfolio. The Ninth

10Circuit's decision in the ITS case has had a

11a chilling effect on that activity. There thebr>
12Court held that although there is a presumption in

13favor of an IP owner's right to refuse to license

14a competitor, that presumption can be overcome by

15evidence of bad intent. And that evidence can

16take the form of internal company documents.

17We think that the Federal Circuit,

18which considered very similar facts in the Xerox v.

19CSU case got the issue right when it held that in

20the absence of tying, fraud or sham litigation,

21it's not appropriate to inquire into the IP owner's

22subjective motivations for asserting a statutory right

23to exclude. The Xerox court held that the same

24rationale would apply to asserting copyright

25protection as the basis for a refusal to deal.

42

1As a result, we have a

2clear split among the circuits that has

3created a great deal of uncertainty on the

4part of the IP owners and companies that

5provide aftermarket service.

6Where does the uncertainty

7in these two areas leave Kodak and other

8companies? First, if we're successful with our

9digital strategy, and we're able to achieve a

10leading market position in some of the new

11digital markets where we participate, our ability

12to offer competitive bundled pricing could be

13constrained by the LePage's decision. As I

14said, bundled pricing is really the essence

15of solution selling.

16Second, notwithstanding a

17lack of market power in the primary equipment

18markets in which we compete, we still face

19potential challenges by ISO's that can allege that

20Kodak dominates a single brand aftermarket

21for a particular line of equipment. Such ISOs

22will try to require us to license or sell our

23valuable intellectual property.

24Let me offer a few examples

25of the dilemmas these ambiguities can create,

43

1and these are hypothetical examples. First,

2sell a line of photo kiosks that you may have

3seen at a number of retailers. A question

4arises as to whether Kodak can offer retailers

5bundled discounts on the kiosks, our paper

6that runs through these kiosks and the

7aftermarket service. Could we also include

8digital cameras in that bundle when we sell

9to retailers? Could Kodak refuse to license

10our valuable diagnostic software on these

11photo kiosks to an ISO that wishes to compete

12with us?

13Turning to our intellectual

14property strategy. We are in the process of

15entering into licensing agreements with a

16number of companies that we believe have

17infringed our patent portfolio in the digital

18camera area. The question arises whether,

19in approaching a particular company we

20believe violates our patents, can we refuse

21to license the companies' rights in our patents

22simply because they are competitors. And does

23that situation get any worse because we've got

24an internal document suggesting that a reason

25for refusing the license was to gain an upper

44

1hand in the marketplace.

2Could we, in licensing to

3other digital camera sellers, bundle Kodak

4software that allows customers to view their

5images on a PC?

6We offer an on-line photo

7service where you can upload your photos and

8order prints or order prints on different items

9like T-shirts and coffee mugs. This is called

10the Kodak Easy Share Gallery. The question arises

11whether in the event we were to gain a leading

12market position with our Kodak Photo Gallery,

13we could say to our customers who agree to

14store a fixed number of images on our site

15that they will get a discount on their

16prints?

17And finally with respect to

18our graphics business, which I mentioned is

19very much focused trying to meet the end to

20end work-flow demands of our customers, are

21there antitrust concerns with our selling

22graphic communications equipment, software,

23consumables, consulting services, and

24aftermarket services as a bundle? Should it

25make a difference that our customers demand

45

1such solution sales?

2These are some of the issues

3that we grapple with in light of the

4uncertainty under Section 2 that I've

5outlined, and I'll look forward to further

6discussion on these and other issues when we

7get to the questioning period.

8(Applause)

9MR. TARONJI: Thank you,

10Patrick. Our next speaker is Ron Stern.

11Ron is the vice president and senior

12competition counsel for the General Electric

13Company. Ron received his AB from Brown

14University and his law degree from Harvard.

15He clerked for Judge Harold

16Leventhal of the U.S. Court of Appeals for

17the D.C. Circuit and for Justice Potter

18Stewart of the U.S. Supreme Court. He was

19in private practice with Hughes, Hubbard &

20Reid and was a partner with Arnold & Porter.

21In addition, he was the

22special assistant to the Assistant Attorney

23General for the Criminal Division of the U.S.

24Department of Justice. Ron.

25MR. STERN: I'd like to

46

1begin by thanking the Antitrust Division and

2the Federal Trust Commission for holding

3these hearings and for providing me and

4others with the opportunity to address

5important issues relating to the application

6of the antitrust laws to single-firm conduct.

7In particular, I would like

8to thank the staff at both agencies who have

9organized these hearings and put in the hard

10work required to make them a success.

11I also want to make clear at

12the outset that the views and opinions that I

13am providing today and that are in the

14written slides are my own personal views and

15not those of the General Electric Company or

16of other General Electric officials.

17 Let me begin with an

18overview. I want to agree with the heads

19of the two agencies that are hosting these

20hearings, the Assistant Attorney General and

21the Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission,

22that it is important to have clear,

23administrable, and objective rules. This is

24a key requirement, something that's really at

25the heart of these hearings.

47

1It's important for business

2to avoid chilling procompetitive conduct.

3It's also important for consumers. It's

4important to help avoid inadvertent

5violations and disputes and investigations

6that end up wasting company time and

7resources as well as the time and resources

8of the agencies.

9And finally, it's important

10to reduce the cost of developing and

11implementing business plans to foster

12competition in the marketplace.

13Now increasingly, as the

14economy globalizes, it's not sufficient that

15the U.S. rules are clear. The rules adopted

16by other jurisdictions will, of course, affect

17U.S. commerce. And I do not believe that it

18is surprising or coincidental that the United

19States, European Commission, and the

20International Competition Network, an

21organization formed by, I believe, more than

22100 competition authorities around the world,

23are all addressing the issue of competition

24standards for single-firm conduct at this

25time.

48

1In a global economy this is

2a global issue, not just a United States

3issue; and that's important, particularly for

4companies such as mine, that operate in a

5number of global markets.

6What I'd like to do today is

7walk through from a counseling perspective

8which is a perspective, I see every day,

9and look at areas that could be clarified in

10Section 2.

11First, the issue is what kind

12of rule governs. Is your conduct unilateral,

13single-firm conduct, or is it multi-firm

14conduct? Is it something that Section 1 governs

15or Article 81 in Europe?

16Or is it something that

17Section 2 governs as single-firm conduct or

18Article 82 in Europe?

19The next issue is whether

20there is a threshold solution or a threshold

21screen that makes you comfortable that the

22conduct doesn't violate the law? And one

23important screen under the U.S. law is the

24requirement of monopoly power.

25If you can be sure that your

49

1company isn't in that kind of position, it

2doesn't control market prices, then you don't

3have to worry about the nature of the conduct

4and whether the conduct meets or doesn't meet

5any of the different rules that have been

6talked about during these hearings and are

7being discussed today.

8If the threshold isn't met,

9then you have to look at the conduct and

10decide whether the conduct is exclusionary or

11not. And oftentimes what you're looking for

12are clear rules that will guide you to allow

13you to tell your client that they can safely

14pursue X type of conduct because that's in a

15safe harbor or that's clearly not a problem.

16And then why are we going

17through this entire exercise? Well, we're

18going through the exercise basically because

19there are risks and costs if you end up in a

20gray area that someone thinks violates the

21requirements.

22There is the potential for

23government enforcement actions and

24investigations, and in the U.S. for private

25treble damage action. And there are a host

50

1of potential consequences, from injunctive

2relief to fines, not in the U.S., but in

3some jurisdictions, to treble damage awards,

4legal fees, and the like.

5 So what I'd like to do is

6continue to walk through the issues. One

7issue that reinforces the concern that I'd

8just like to touch upon is the fact that

9jury instructions in the Section 2 area are

10often particularly problematic. I've just

11set some examples up on the screen, but

12basically they involve very general types of

13words. Is the conduct wrongful? Did one

14buy more logs than were necessary or pay a

15higher price than was necessary? Did the

16firm engage in competition on the merits?

17Whatever, again, a jury believes that means.

18All of these things reinforce

19the risk, particularly in the U.S.

20environment, of treble damages and attorneys'

21fees and large litigation costs. You

22basically want to counsel to be in a safe zone

23to avoid having to worry about jury

24instructions.

25So then back to the

51

1beginning. Do you know whether you're in the

2single-firm conduct area? We obviously have

3the Copperweld decision and clear law that if

4you're a company and you're dealing with a

5wholly-owned subsidiary, you're one entity,

6and you know that you can't violate Sherman Act

7Section 1 by having an agreement in restraint of

8trade because you don't have two parties. You

9just have one.

10The problem is under

11Copperweld the application is unclear. The

12law in the lower courts is divided as to

13where the line is when you're dealing with

14non-wholly-owned subsidiaries.

15And one important thing that

16the government could do is reinstate the

17guidance that existed in 1988 with the

18antitrust enforcement guidelines for

19international operations. I've included

20that in the slides.

21And the clear guidance that

22was given then, I think, would be important

23to reinstate it, is that whenever you have

24more than 50 percent of the voting securities

25of a company owned by its parent or its

52

1sister company, that whole family of

2companies is one economic entity and is

3subject only to Section 2, the single-firm

4conduct section, and not Section 1. That's

5one area in which I think clarity could be

6added.

7Now, if we move beyond, the

8next issue is trying to identify whether your

9company in the particular situation that

10you're facing is subject to Section 2. And

11the first element of Section 2 is having

12monopoly power. The second element relates to

13the conduct. Is there a willful acquisition

14or maintenance of that power which is often

15referred to as engaging in exclusionary

16conduct.

17Now, under United States law

18there is a pretty helpful screen. You have

19to have the power to control market price.

20And in bidding markets, it's clear that if

21there are other credible competitors, you

22generally don't have the power to control

23market prices, even if you have a very large

24share.

25The case law gives some very

53

1helpful general rules of thumb. If you have

2more than a 70 percent share, you have to

3look at all of the other factors, but you at

4least know that you're in a danger zone.

5If you have less than a 50

6percent share under the U.S. case law, it's

7very unlikely that you have to worry about

8whether your conduct could be categorized as

9exclusionary.

10Some people point to the fact

11that attempted monopolization can occur at a

12lower market share threshold, but you have

13the very important counseling hook in the

14element of attempted monopolization which is

15the requirement of a dangerous probability of

16achieving monopoly power, which brings you

17right back to the monopoly power test.

18So the key is, and I think

19that's been very helpful, even for successful

20firms, and certainly my company has a number

21of successful businesses, that most

22successful firms simply do not meet the

23monopoly power test under U.S. law. And that

24is helpful in counseling. But there are two

25important howevers that I want to talk

54

1about.

2The first is the issue that's

3been discussed that Patrick talked about, the

4treatment of aftermarkets. And the second

5are non-U.S. issues, that there are lower

6dominance thresholds outside the U.S. And

7indeed, there is the curious concept of

8collective dominance, at least curious to a

9U.S. antitrust lawyer outside the U.S., so

10let me turn to those.

11First I'd like to turn to

12aftermarkets. As Patrick mentioned, this

13comes from the Kodak case. There the

14Supreme Court held that there was the

15potential, not that it was always the case,

16but the potential for there to be a single

17brand parts and service market, even where

18the company had a modest percentage and had

19no monopoly power in the interband equipment

20market. Here, Kodak had less than 25

21percent, clearly in the safe harbor of the

22interband photocopier market. Photocopiers

23are often referred to as Xerox machines, not

24Kodak machines. That's for a reason. They

25didn't have market power. But they had a

55

1very large share of an intrabrand parts and

2service market for Kodak copiers.

3Now, post-Kodak, there have

4been a number of court cases interpreting

5Kodak, and they have limited Kodak's

6application in most circuits to a situation

7in which there has been a change of policy

8with respect to aftermarket sales of parts or

9service. That however has not been uniform.

10The Ninth Circuit is sort of an outlier.

11 All in all, what this does,

12I believe, is create very significant

13problems. All suppliers of capital goods are

14exposed today to the notion of having to

15worry about whether or not they fall under

16Section 2 when they deal with parts and

17services for the products that they sell.

18And somewhat ironically, if

19you have a modest market share, you're one of

20the also-rans in the interbrand equipment

21market, you may have a higher share of your

22single-brand parts and service market for the

23very simple reason that third parties tend to

24focus on the most successful installed base

25products to develop non-OEM parts and non-OEM

56

1services.

2So the competitor with ten

3percent in the interbrand equipment market

4may be more likely to have a monopoly sharebr>
5of a single-brand aftermarket than the

6leading firm in the interbrand equipment

7market.

8So this is a problem and

9it's a problem because it chills conduct. If

10you're going to counsel, what it does is it

11really counsels you to adopt restrictive

12approaches from the outset and not change

13them. Because if you do that, you really

14don't have to worry about having a problem inbr>
15this area.

16I think the outcome is an

17incorrect one. It has been heavily

18criticized by a number of esteemed

19economists, many of which have either been

20former heads of the economic part of the

21antitrust division or the current head.

22Professor Carlton, Professor Shapiro,

23Professor Klein, and Professor Hovenkamp have

24all criticized the Kodak decision with respect

25to aftermarkets and suggested that it is

57

1unnecessary and unsound.

2And the Department of Justice

3thought it was unsound in its amicus brief in

4Kodak.

5 So I think what should be

6clarified here is this notion of single-brand

7aftermarkets. That concept from Kodak

8should be overturned. The government should

9give guidance, and should file amicus

10briefs in courts to try to clarify

11the law in this area.

12The same thing should happen

13in Europe. I have referenced comments by the

14International Chamber of Commerce that are on

15the DG Competition website with respect to

16the Article 82 discussion paper which give

17further reasons why there shouldn't be

18single-brand aftermarkets.

19Let's then turn to the issue

20of monopoly power outside of the U.S. Here,

21the International Competition Network has a

22unilateral conduct working group, and it has

23a draft report in-progress for its next

24convention in Moscow. And what it has

25found by surveying competition authorities

58

1around the world is that generally, the

2presumption of dominance, which is essentially

3the non-U.S. equivalent of monopoly power, is

4set at a 33 percent to 50 percent level.

5Now, that's below what is essentially the

6U.S. safe harbor level.

7And what it does, of course,

8in a global marketplace is tend to expose a

9much larger number of leading firms to the

10potential that you have to worry about

11whether your conduct is going to be

12characterized in these regimes as abusive, or

13if you use the United States approach, as

14exclusionary.

15Now, there's one good thing.

16There's also a trend towards taking a

17behavioral approach, which is looking at the

18ability to set market prices, the same

19approach taken under Section 2 in the U.S.,

20rather than a purely structural presumption

21based on market shares.

22I'd like to turn to another

23problem that I think is one that should be

24addressed. It's not a huge problem today,

25but it's the concept of collec