Private Equity Firm Welsh Carson Dismissed From FTC Antitrust Action

Highlights

• In Federal Trade Commission v. U.S. Anesthesia Partners, Inc. et al., a federal district court granted private equity firm Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe's motion to dismiss it from the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) lawsuit alleging an anticompetitive scheme to drive up the price of anesthesia services by orchestrating a decade-long "roll-up" strategy to consolidate anesthesiology practices in Texas. However, the court denied U.S. Anesthesia Partners' motion to dismiss.
• Section 13(b) of the FTC Act does not permit the FTC to seek injunctive relief on "long-past conduct" without some evidence that a defendant "is" committing or "is about to" commit another violation of the law.