APPEALS COURT WON 扵 LET APARTMENT DWELLERS CHALLENGE EXCLUSIVES

摘要

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal of a case in which residents ofnmultiple dwelling units in five states complained that exclusive contracts limited them to AT&Tnfor voice, video and Internet services. The residents called the deals 揳n illegal restraint onntrade and an attempt to monopolize the Triple Play services market,?because a single MDU isn揳 relevant geographic market.?A district judge threw out the case, 揾olding that appellantsnhad failed to demonstrate that their alleged geographic market was sufficient for antitrustnpurposes,?Judge Thomas Reavley wrote in the appeal decision. MDUs compete with eachnanother for a tenant 抯 business, and service providers like AT&T 揷ompete with each othernto provide the Triple Play contracts in each MDU.?With the competition between MDU owners,nthe competition between service providers and 搕he highly mobile nature of today 抯 society,nwe cannot hold that a single MDU is so segregated as to be economically significant and thusnrepresents a plausible geographic market,?Reavley wrote.