[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 250 (Wednesday, December 31, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 78866-78868]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-30646]
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FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION
[File No. 141 0088]
Professional Lighting and Sign Management Company of America,
Inc.; Analysis To Aid Public Comment
AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission.
ACTION: Proposed consent agreement.
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SUMMARY: The consent agreement in this matter settles alleged
violations of federal law prohibiting unfair methods of competition.
The attached Analysis to Aid Public Comment describes both the
allegations in the draft complaint and the terms of the consent order--
embodied in the consent agreement--that would settle these allegations.
DATES: Comments must be received on or before January 22, 2015.
ADDRESSES: Interested parties may file a comment at https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/plasmaconsent online or on paper, by
following the instructions in the Request for Comment part of the
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section below. Write ``Professional Lighting
and Sign Management Companies of America, Inc.--Consent Agreement; File
No. 1410088'' on your comment and file your comment online at https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/plasmaconsent by following the
instructions on the web-based form. If you prefer to file your comment
on paper, write ``Professional Lighting and Sign Management Companies
of America, Inc.--Consent Agreement; File No. 1410088'' on your comment
and on the envelope, and mail it to the following address: Federal
Trade Commission, Office of the Secretary, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW.,
Suite CC-5610 (Annex D), Washington, DC 20580, or deliver your comment
to the following address: Federal Trade Commission, Office of the
Secretary, Constitution Center, 400 7th Street SW., 5th Floor, Suite
5610 (Annex D), Washington, DC 20024.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Barbara Blank, Bureau of Competition,
(202-326-2523), 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20580.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Pursuant to Section 6(f) of the Federal
Trade Commission Act, 15 U.S.C. 46(f), and FTC Rule 2.34, 16 CFR 2.34,
notice is hereby given that the above-captioned consent agreement
containing consent order to cease and desist, having been filed with
and accepted, subject to final approval, by the Commission, has been
placed on the public record for a period of thirty (30) days. The
following Analysis to Aid Public Comment describes the terms of the
consent agreement, and the allegations in the complaint. An electronic
copy of the full text of the consent agreement package can be obtained
from the FTC Home Page (for December 23, 2014), on the World Wide Web,
at http://www.ftc.gov/os/actions.shtm.
You can file a comment online or on paper. For the Commission to
consider your comment, we must receive it on or before January 22,
2015. Write ``Professional Lighting and Sign Management Companies of
America, Inc.--Consent Agreement; File No. 1410088'' on your comment.
Your comment--including your name and your state--will be placed on the
public record of this proceeding, including, to the extent practicable,
on the public Commission Web site, at http://www.ftc.gov/os/publiccomments.shtm. As a matter of discretion, the Commission tries to
remove individuals' home contact information from comments before
placing them on the Commission Web site.
Because your comment will be made public, you are solely
responsible for making sure that your comment does not include any
sensitive personal information, like anyone's Social Security number,
date of birth, driver's license number or other state identification
number or foreign country equivalent, passport number, financial
account number, or credit or debit card number. You are also solely
responsible for making sure that your comment does not include any
sensitive health information, like medical records or other
individually identifiable health information. In addition, do not
include any ``[t]rade secret or any commercial or financial information
which . . . is privileged or confidential,'' as discussed in Section
6(f) of the FTC Act, 15 U.S.C. 46(f), and FTC Rule 4.10(a)(2), 16 CFR
4.10(a)(2). In particular, do not include competitively sensitive
information such as costs, sales statistics, inventories, formulas,
patterns, devices, manufacturing processes, or customer names.
If you want the Commission to give your comment confidential
treatment, you must file it in paper form, with a request for
confidential treatment, and you have to follow the procedure explained
in FTC Rule 4.9(c), 16 CFR 4.9(c).\1\ Your comment will be kept
confidential only if the FTC General Counsel, in his or her sole
discretion, grants your request in accordance with the law and the
public interest.
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\1\ In particular, the written request for confidential
treatment that accompanies the comment must include the factual and
legal basis for the request, and must identify the specific portions
of the comment to be withheld from the public record. See FTC Rule
4.9(c), 16 CFR 4.9(c).
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Postal mail addressed to the Commission is subject to delay due to
heightened security screening. As a result, we encourage you to submit
your comments online. To make sure that the Commission considers your
online comment, you must file it at https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/plasmaconsent by following the instructions on the web-based form.
If this Notice appears at http://www.regulations.gov/#!home, you also
may file a comment through that Web site.
If you file your comment on paper, write ``Professional Lighting
and Sign Management Companies of America, Inc.--Consent Agreement; File
No. 1410088'' on your comment and on the envelope, and mail your
comment to the following address: Federal Trade Commission, Office of
the Secretary, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW., Suite CC-5610 (Annex D),
Washington, DC 20580, or deliver your comment to the following address:
Federal Trade Commission, Office of the Secretary, Constitution Center,
400 7th Street SW., 5th Floor, Suite 5610 (Annex D), Washington, DC
20024. If possible, submit your paper comment to the Commission by
courier or overnight service.
[[Page 78867]]
Visit the Commission Web site at http://www.ftc.gov to read this
Notice and the news release describing it. The FTC Act and other laws
that the Commission administers permit the collection of public
comments to consider and use in this proceeding as appropriate. The
Commission will consider all timely and responsive public comments that
it receives on or before January 22, 2015. You can find more
information, including routine uses permitted by the Privacy Act, in
the Commission's privacy policy, at http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/privacy.htm.
Analysis of Agreement Containing Consent Order To Aid Public Comment
The Federal Trade Commission (``Commission'') has accepted, subject
to final approval, an Agreement Containing Consent Order (``Consent
Agreement'') from the Professional Lighting and Sign Management
Companies of America, Inc. (``PLASMA''). The Commission's complaint
(``Complaint'') alleges that PLASMA, acting as a combination of its
members and in agreement with at least some of its members, restrained
competition among its members and others in violation of Section 5 of
the Federal Trade Commission Act, as amended, 15 U.S.C. 45, by adopting
and maintaining provisions in its Bylaws and Standard Operating
Procedures that restrict members from competing in the territory of
another member, that restrict price competition, and that restrict
members from soliciting the customers of another member upon
termination of membership in the association.
Under the terms of the proposed Consent Agreement, PLASMA is
required to cease and desist from allocating territories, restraining
price competition among its members, and restraining its members from
soliciting customers. It is also required to maintain an antitrust
compliance program and take other steps to further the remedial
objectives of the proposed order.
The Commission anticipates that the competitive issues described in
the Complaint will be resolved by accepting the proposed order, subject
to final approval, contained in the Consent Agreement. The proposed
Consent Agreement has been placed on the public record for 30 days for
receipt of comments from interested members of the public. Comments
received during this period will become part of the public record.
After 30 days, the Commission will review the Consent Agreement again
and the comments received, and will decide whether it should withdraw
from the Consent Agreement or make final the accompanying Decision and
Order (``the Proposed Order'').
The purpose of this Analysis to Aid Public Comment is to invite and
facilitate public comment. It is not intended to constitute an official
interpretation of the proposed Consent Agreement and the accompanying
Proposed Order or in any way to modify their terms.
The Consent Agreement is for settlement purposes only and does not
constitute an admission by PLASMA that the law has been violated as
alleged in the Complaint or that the facts alleged in the Complaint,
other than jurisdictional facts, are true.
I. The Complaint
The Complaint makes the following allegations.
A. The Respondent
PLASMA is a non-profit corporation consisting of licensed
electricians, with approximately 25 member firms across the country.
PLASMA's members specialize in commercial lighting and electrical sign
installation and maintenance.
B. The Anticompetitive Conduct
PLASMA maintains a set of Member Bylaws and Standard Operating
Procedures (``Bylaws'') applicable to the commercial activities of its
members, and requires its members to comply with its Bylaws. PLASMA
maintains the following provisions in its Bylaws:
A provision that prohibits a member from providing to a
customer commercial lighting or sign services in the designated
territory of another member, unless such other member first declines to
perform the work;
A price schedule governing the price of any such work
performed in the designated territory of another member; and
A provision that bars any member, for one year following
termination of membership, from soliciting or competing for the
customers (or prospective customers) of another member.
PLASMA also established a grievance committee to resolve alleged
violations of the Bylaws, as well as a process through which PLASMA
could sanction violations of the Bylaws.
II. The Allegations
The Complaint alleges that PLASMA has violated Section 5 of the
Federal Trade Commission Act by designating a territory for each
member, and by restricting through its Bylaws the ability of members to
compete in the designated territory of another member; to compete on
price; and to solicit or compete for the customers of other members.
The Complaint alleges that the purpose, effect, tendency, or
capacity of the combination, agreement, acts and practices of PLASMA
has been and is to restrain competition unreasonably and to injure
consumers by discouraging and restricting competition among licensed
electricians.
III. The Proposed Order
The Proposed Order has the following substantive provisions:
Paragraph II requires PLASMA to cease and desist from restraining its
members from competing in the territories of other members; from
restraining price competition among members; and from restraining
members from soliciting the customers of other members upon the
termination of membership in the association. The Proposed Order does
not prohibit PLASMA from requesting that its members identify any
geographic region(s) within which such members can quickly respond for
service. However, PLASMA may not place restrictions on the number of
members that may identify a particular geographic region as a ``quick
response'' region.
Paragraph III of the Proposed Order requires PLASMA to remove from
its Web site and organization documents any statement inconsistent with
the Proposed Order. PLASMA must distribute a statement describing the
Consent Agreement (``the Settlement Statement'') to PLASMA's board of
directors, officers, employees, and members. Paragraph III also
requires PLASMA to provide all new members and all members who receive
a membership renewal notice with a copy of the Settlement Statement.
Paragraph IV of the Proposed Order requires PLASMA to design,
maintain, and operate an antitrust compliance program. PLASMA will have
to appoint an Antitrust Compliance Officer for the duration of the
Proposed Order. For a period of three years, PLASMA will have to
provide annual training to its board of directors, offices, and
employees, and conduct a presentation at its annual conference that
summarizes PLASMA's obligations under the Proposed Order and provides
context-appropriate guidance on compliance with the antitrust laws.
PLASMA must also implement policies and procedures to enable persons to
ask questions about, and report violations of, the Proposed Order and
the antitrust laws confidentially and without fear of retaliation, and
to discipline its leaders,
[[Page 78868]]
employees, and members for failure to comply with the Proposed Order.
Paragraphs V-VII of the Proposed order impose certain standard
reporting and compliance requirements on PLASMA.
The Proposed Order will expire in 20 years.
By direction of the Commission.
Janice Podoll Frankle,
Acting Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2014-30646 Filed 12-30-14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-P