Competence skills

Exercise 9

Banking and Antitrust Laws

Complete the text with the proper words and phrases from the box.

to merge; Clayton Act; gain a good market share; FDIC; law enforcement; unreasonable restraint; alleged; mislead; market concentration; discrimination practices; civil lawsuit; supervision; deceptive advertising; Sherman Act; be regulated; to ensure; service area; Antitrust Laws; growing competition; conduct; substantially lessen the competition; anticompetitive practices; maintain confidence; violate the antitrust laws; the U.S. Department of Justice; under the banking and antitrust laws

The banking and financial services market has become an arena of 1)…... As banking activities develop to meet the demand for personal and corporate banking each bank seeks to 2) …….within the 3)……... The competition among the banks in the USA 4) …..by federal banking regulatory agencies (such as 5)…….) and by the 6) …………..whose role is 7) ……….that banks observe 8) ……………..

Firstly, the 9) …………..concerns bank mergers. The federal banking regulatory agencies and the Department of Justice review the competitive impact of bank and bank holding company mergers 10) …………….. and reject mergers that would tend to 11)………………...

When two banks in Houston agreed 12) ……….the DOJ 13) ………..that the merger could create 14) …………. and 15) …………. brought 16) …………. acting under Section 7 of 17) ……………

There may be other instances of bank’s unlawful 18) ……. The U.S. Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit against VISA and MasterCard alleging that the card associations had engaged in 19) …………….. by cooperating with each other rather than competing with each other. VISA and MasterCard also prohibited their member banks to issue American Express and Discover card products thus creating 20)……………... That anticompetitive behavior was recognized a violation of 21) ………………..

It’s unlawful to engage in credit or mortgage 22) ………….. or 23) ………….the customers using 24) ………………

The regulations and 25) ……………..measures 26) ………………..in the savings and loan industry.

Case Reading Skills

Vocabulary Notes:

case summary – краткое изложение сути судебного дела.

reverse a decision – отменить судебное решение

remand a case – отослать дело на доследование

reconsideration - пересмотр

vacate - отменить

further consideration – дальнейшее рассмотрение (дела)

finding – установленные факты

affirm – подтвердить, утвердить

rule of reason – правило “разумного подхода”, правило применения здравого смысла

Answer the questions

1. What suit did the DOJ bring against Microsoft?

2. What facts did the district court find?

3. Where did the company appeal?

4. Was the decision of the district court affirmed?

5. What finding was affirmed in part?

6. What finding was reversed in part?

7. What finding was remanded for further consideration?

8. What finding was remanded under the rule of reason?

9. Where did the Appeal Court decide to remand the case further?