A Medical Device Daily

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has approved a final consent order concerning two dialysis clinic operators that negotiated a deal which the agency says violates antitrust laws.

Last month the FTC reported a consent order settling charges that American Renal Associates (ARA; Beverly, Massachusetts) and Fresenius Medical Care Holdings (Bad Homburg, Germany) unlawfully restrained competition in violation of Section 5 of the FTC Act when ARA paid Fresenius to close clinics located near competing ARA clinics in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. The order also settles charges that ARA’s proposed acquisition of two other Fresenius clinics in August 2005 in the Warwick/Cranston area of Rhode Island, would violate Section 7 of the Clayton Act (Medical Device Daily, Sept. 11, 2007).

According to the FTC, agreements to pay a competitor to exit a market, such as the one negotiated between ARA and Fresenius, are illegal. Similarly, the acquisition as originally proposed would have eliminated direct competition between ARA and Fresenius clinics, and resulted in ARA operating the only dialysis clinics in the Warwick/Cranston area. The companies terminated their agreement in March 2006 after FTC staff raised antitrust concerns, the agency noted in September.

The consent order prohibits ARA and Fresenius from agreeing with any clinic operator to close clinics or otherwise allocate dialysis markets, territories, or customers, and requires ARA to notify the FTC before it acquires any dialysis clinic assets in the Warwick/Cranston area. The order will expire in 10 years.