Puerto Rico MVPD Brings Antitrust Complaint Against Competitor to Supreme Court
The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision rejecting Puerto Rico Telephone Co. antitrust claims against San Juan Cable -- doing business as OneLink -- ran contrary to past 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 9th circuit decisions saying a pattern of…
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regulatory petitioning aimed at delaying a competitor's entry can give rise to liability under antitrust laws. PRTC made the argument in a petition for writ of certiorari filed Wednesday with the Supreme Court. The 1st Circuit order (in Pacer) last year said OneLink's fusillade of regulatory petitions was aimed at blocking cable TV competition from PRTC, but none of those ultimately unsuccessful petitions individually were baseless so OneLink wasn't liable. PRTC in its cert petition said the 1st Circuit decision wrongly gave categorical immunity for seeking to use administrative petitions as an anticompetitive weapon. OneLink outside counsel didn't comment Friday.