Re: POL: Reaction to Microsoft Ruling

From: Zero Powers (zero_powers@hotmail.com)
Date: Wed Apr 12 2000 - 00:50:02 MDT


>From: "Michael S. Lorrey" <retroman@turbont.net>
>
>Zero Powers wrote:
> >
> > >From: Charlie Stross <charlie@antipope.org>
> > >
> > >On Mon, Apr 10, 2000 at 08:26:45AM -0400, Michael S. Lorrey wrote:
> > > >
> > > > Not so. Foreign companies cannot have anti-trust actions brought
>against
> > > > them, only US based companies can be charged with such 'crimes'.
> >
> > Not quite. The reason I posted the link to the statute was so you could
> > read it for yourself. If you had you would have known that there is
>nothing
> > in the act which limits it to companies "based" in the US. I'll try
>again:
> >
> > http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/foia/divisionmanual/ch2.htm
> >
> > The short answer is, as long as a company's actions restrain "trade or
> > commerce in any Territory of the United States" (regardless of where the
> > company is based, they will be subject to the act.
>
>Literally by your intepretation, yes, however the US has never brought
>an anti-trust suit against a foreign company.

Wrong again. The US sues foreign companies *all the time* under the Sherman
Act. The first time it was done successfully was way back in 1945 in the
case of US v. Alcoa (148 F.2d 416). Alcoa was a Canadian corporation which
was sued for acts committed *entirely* outside the borders of the US. As
long as your business has a sufficient impact on trade in the US, it simply
doesn't matter where you are based or where you do business. There is
really no dispute about it.

-Zero

"I like dreams of the future better than the history of the past"
--Thomas Jefferson

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