INDUSTRY-SPECIFIC RESOURCES

Agriculture and Food

Computers/Internet/Technology

Funeral

Health Care

Insurance

Law & Legal Services

Media

Sports/Leagues

Transportation Utilities/Telecommunications/Deregulation Waste Management Data Sources on Industries and Companies

Agriculture and Food Markets

Policy on Monitoring Competitive Conditions in the Agricultural Marketplace This statement was issued jointly in 1999 by the U.S. DOJ Antitrust Division, the FTC, and the Dept. of Agriculture.

FTC Grocery Industry Slotting Allowance Report As described in this Press Release, dated Nov. 14, 2003, the Federal Trade Commission has issued its staff report to Congress, providing new information from the staff’s case studies about slotting allowances paid to certain retailers in certain geographic areas for five product categories: fresh bread, hot dogs, ice cream and frozen novelties, shelf-stable pasta, and shelf-stable salad dressing. Slotting allowances are one-time payments a supplier makes to a retailer as a condition for the initial placement of the supplier’s product on the retailer’s store shelves or for initial access to the retailer’s warehouse space. The Report (pdf 119 pp.) is entitled Slotting Allowances in the Retail Grocery Industry: Selected Case Studies in Five Product Categories, and is based on a small sample of detailed, anonymous case studies, and may not be representative of all retailers in the United States.

USDA Agricultural Marketing Service This US Department of Agriculture website offers news, reports, compilations of statutes and regulations, etc., related to agricultural marketing.

Agribusiness, Food Industry and Forest Industry Associations on the Internet Compiled at the National Agricultural Library, this list of national, state and international organizations covers association websites from alfalfa and alligators to venison and wool.

Baked Lasagne Bert Foer, President of AAI, presented this essay on competitive issues in food retailing and food supplying sectors in a Food Policy Retreat sponsored by the Organization for Competitive Markets in Spring of 2000. Foer also describes the anticompetitive issues relating to The Category Captain and the Consolidating Food Industry, in the 5/16/01 edition of FTC:WATCH. Reviewing the significance of the trend for merger analysis, Foer concludes:

The age of innocence is over. In the food industry, there is no longer any escaping the need to examine how mergers at one level can affect competition at another. The linkage of category captaincy and its potential effects on a market must now be confronted.

Organization for Competitive Markets OCM is a multidisciplinary nonprofit group that provides research, information and advocacy towards its stated goal of increasing competition in the agricultural marketplace and protecting those markets from abuses of corporate power. OCM views the current consolidation of agriculture as market failure resulting in misallocation of resources and the destruction of rural economies and culture. OCM's Library Page contains extensive materials on competition in agricultural market and filings in antitrust cases. The Links section is also useful, connecting to numerous sources of competition policy and research relating to agricultural markets. OCM also sponsors a Litigation Clearinghouse.

The Corporate Agribusiness Research Project (CARP) CARP "was established to monitor corporate agribusiness from a public interest prospective. . . advocating the importance of building alternative, democratically controlled food systems." Edited by A.V. Krebs, the site aims to serve family farmers, farm workers and consumers in their struggles for economic and social justice.

Cattlemen's Legal Fund "Cattleman's Legal Fund is a producer partnership, made up of cattlemen across the United States, committed to insuring a free, open and competitive market at all levels of beef production and sales." The site has a Searchable data base on cattle issues. The Fund's mission is to save small ranches and to help assure a higher percentage of the retail beef dollar for producers.

Agribusiness Accountability Initiative Sponsored by the Center of Concern, the Initiative was formed "to address the disproportionate impact of vertically-integrated agribusiness conglomerates on the livelihoods and food security of small and medium producers, consumers, and communities around the world." It supports antitrust litigation, as well as legislation that challenges agribusiness concentration, believing that the industrialization of agriculture "concentrates market share among a small handful of firms, removing price discipline along the supply chain through vertical integration, resulting in uncompetitive markets that will ultimately hurt consumers and producers alike."

Vertical Food Portal This resource contains a detailed subject index of web sites related to the multifaceted food industry. Listings are annotated and include manufacturers, distributors, and trade associations. There are also pages featuring the newest sites, the "coolest" sites, and top-rated sites.

International Trade in Agricultural Products: A Research Guide Lee Peoples' guide on researching international agricultural law includes documentation and links on intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations, treaties and agreements, dispute resolution, customs, tariffs, domestic trade law and policy, and statistics.

Computers/Internet/Technology

Global E-Commerce Law This web site from the law firm Baker & McKenzie is a comprehensive collection of resources related to national and international e-commerce law. It covers laws, policy, guidelines and analysis on many aspects of e-commerce, including competition, privacy, data protection, taxation, information security, intellectual property, and e-finance. A free, weekly newsletter, Global E-law Alert, is also available online or via e-mail subscription.

Internet Law Library The Internet Law Library features extensive summaries of court decisions shaping the law of the web; providing facts, analysis and pertinent quotes from cases of interest to those involved in New Media, including a section on antitrust cases. Compiled and written by attorney-partner Martin H. Samson, of the NYC law firm of Phillips Nizer Benjamin Krim & Ballon LLP.

Resources in E-Commerce and Hi-Tech This report from the Computer and Internet Committee of the ABA Antitrust Section has collected links to quality resources available on the Internet concerning the interface of antitrust and e-commerce. The resources include reports and speeches by antitrust/competition and consumer protection officials, and well as scholars, in the US, Canada, European Community, UK, and more. The items are listed under the following categories: Business to Consumer E-Commerce, Internet Access, Business to Business E-Commerce, Consumer Protection and E-Commerce, Online Privacy, High Technology and Intellectual Property.

Washington Post TechPolicy Page The Post's TechPolicy page covers important issues, legislation, rulemaking, and court cases related to hightech industries, especially telecommunications and the internet. There are background pieces and explanatory FAQs. An example of its news analysis is coverage (2/21/03) of the FCC's Mixed Vote on Competition involving the Commission's decision to preserve regulations governing local telephone competition, while removing similar rules for high-speed Internet lines.

E-Commerce Meets Antitrust: A Primer This primer, by AAI's Albert A. Foer, was published in 2001 by the Journal of Public Policy and Marketing (Notre Dame).

Competition Policy & Hi-Tech Written by Prof. Lawrence A. Sullivan, this article is titled: "Is Competition Policy Possible in High-Tech Markets? An Inquiry into Antitrust, Intellectual Property and Broadband Regulation as Applied to the ‘New Economy’." It is a comprehensive discussion of the relevance and potential effectiveness of antitrust law and current regulatory schemes in high-tech markets, and was first presented to aai’s 2nd Annual Conference (2001), and reprinted in Vol. 52 of the Case Western Reserve Law Review. (50 pp., pdf)

Restrictions on Online Competition The Federal Trade Commission's Workshop on Efforts to Restrict Competition on the Internet (Oct., 2002) included panels and papers on the general topic of governmental and private restrictions on competition online, as well as numerous panels on particular industries that have been or might be significantly affected by online competition. This link to the Workshop Home Page gives access to related press releases, public notices, congressional testimony, and advocacy efforts.

The panelists came from academia, business (online and oldline), government, and consumer organizations. The Workshop's Comments Page lists all panels and participants, and links to their papers and Statements for the Workshop.

In the Statement of the Antitrust Section of the ABA to the FTC Workshop, you will find an extensive list and discussion of state regulations and private business practices that might impact on the ability to compete over the internet.

The Internet: Opportunities and Risks for Competition This paper by Prof. Allan Fels, Chairman, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, was delivered to the Bundeskartellamt 10th International Conference on Competition (May 2001). Among the issues discussed are the implications of technical innovation and network effects on market power, the balance between intellectual property rights and competition, pro- and anti-competitive effects of price-transparency-enhancing mechanisms, and the challenge to achieve international coordination to combat competition and consumer protection issues that cross national boundaries.

Tech Law Journal This site offers "News, records and analysis of legislation, litigation and regulation of the Computer and Internet Industry." Its News from the Web page culls the latest news from many sites, and includes links to major media sites, government agencies related to Tech issues, industry groups and members. Its Calendar page covers Congress, Federal Agencies, industry and bar associations. Also has an Antitrust Page with related TLJ analysis and news.

CNET News.com This useful site promises "Tech News First," and covers private and government antitrust activities. Its "Big Picture" feature, at the bottom of each article, gives you links to prior articles on the covered topic and related topics.

Wired News Wired News covers the business, politics and people of the hi-tech world. An extensive collection of articles on antitrust issues can be located by inserting the keyword "antitrust" into the site's search box. The search can, of course, also be narrowed to cover selected companies, cases, or issues.

Consumer Project on Technology: Antitrust Policy & Enforcement Directed by James Love, CPT is a "Naderite" organization; its antitrust and competition activities focus on the high technology sector, and issues such as access and privacy. The site includes a collection of materials on recent major mergers.

Progress & Freedom Foundation Founded in 1993 to study the digital revolution and its implications for public policy, the PFF focuses primarily on communications, computing, and telecommunications. It supports replacing the FCC and substantially deregulating the telecommunications marketplace.

BNA's Web Watch Publisher BNA often covers technology and internet issues in this periodic review of online resources relating to select topics in the news or on the public agenda. There is no fee for accessing Web Watch, where you will find "links to government, industry, and academic resources on selected topics. New subjects will be posted weekly, and new resources will also be added to existing topics."

Examples of available compilations from Web Watch with competition policy ramifications include Internet Sales Tax issues, and the growth and regulation of Broadband.

Cyberspace Law/Antitrust and Unfair Competition Page Sponsored by the John Marshall Law School (Chicago), this site has cases, articles, commentary on antitrust and cyberspace.

Netlitigation Antitrust Page Netlitigation provides netizens with tools for assessing the risk and opportunity related to litigation. The site offers headlines and analysis for numerous topic areas. The Antitrust and the Internet page has commentary and links on several important cases (e.g., Intuit and Microsoft, Sun v. Microsoft, DOJ v. Microsoft).

The Economics of Networks At this site from NYU's Stern School "you will find a collection of information on economic issues of networks, such as telephone and fax communications networks, the internet, financial exchange and credit card networks, as well as on 'virtual networks'."

Competition Policy for Computer Software Markets In this refereed article from The Journal of Information, Law and Technology (JILT), author John Hogan proposes a "dynamic compatibility regime" as necessary to encourage firms to engage in winner-takes-all "standards races" in software markets.

PeopleSoft/View from the Court This is a Trial Journal in weblog format from PeopleSoft antitrust lawyer Gary Reback, covering the DOJ v. Oracle trial, in which DOJ challenges Oracle's unsolicited tender offer for PeopleSoft. The weblog also includes a useful repository of documents and information related to the case.

Corante: Tech News Filtered Daily As its name implies, this website brings together important news, analysis and commentary concerning the tech industry (covering e-business, intellectual property, communications, open access, related law and policy, and much more), with much of its content coming from high-quality weblogs. E.g., Ernest Miller's analysis (June 24, 2004) of the INDUCE Act.

Funeral Industry

Selling Funeral Caskets Online The Federal Trade Commission's Workshop on Efforts to Restrict Competition on the Internet (Oct., 2002), included a panel on the online sale of funeral caskets. You can scroll down to the topic of Funeral Caskets on the linked page to find a list of panel participants and their Statements for the Workshop. An FTC press release noted that "In addition to cost savings, online casket sellers can offer consumers a greater variety of choices, such as individualized caskets. Many states, however, require that casket purchases be made only through a licensed, bricks-and-mortar vendor."

The Commission also filed an amicus brief in a federal district court (08/29/02), in the matter of Powers v. Harris, where an Internet-based casket seller challenged a state law requiring all sellers of funeral goods to be licensed funeral directors.

FTC Funeral Industry Rule - At this Page, you will find links related to the Commission's Funeral Rule (16 CFR Part 453), which requires funeral directors to disclose information about funeral prices, goods, services, and options. The text of the Rule is available, along with compliance information for the industry, and a Consumer Guide to planning and shopping for funeral services.

Health Care

Health Hippo: Antitrust - Health Hippo is a major source of policy and regulatory information on the health industry, and its Antitrust page seems a good starting point for research on that topic, with links to relevant U.S. Code sections, case law, guidelines and policy reports,and articles on competition and health care

Improving Health Care: A Dose of Competition - This is a major joint FTC/DOJ Report, which culminates a two-year project. It "reviews the role of competition and provides recommendations to improve the balance between competition and regulation in health care. The report provides significant recommendations and observations on a variety of topics, including the availability of information regarding the price and quality of health-care services; cross-subsidies; physician collective bargaining; insurance mandates; hospital merger analysis; managed care organizations’ bargaining power; and hospital group purchasing organizations." (July 23, 2004; Press Release; Executive Summary)

Federal Trade Commission: Health Care Competition - This web page offers easy connections to health care speeches, actions, advisory opinions, news releases, related to antitrust and competition policy.

Justice Department & FTC Statements of Antitrust Enforcement Policy in Health Care - This 1996 enforcement statement discusses hospital mergers and joint ventures, provider networking ventures, joint purchasing arrangements, information sharing, and more.

Public Hearings on Health Care and Competition Information is available on this web page concerning the FTC and DOJ hearings (held throughout 2003) on the implications of competition law and policy for health care financing and delivery, including cost, quality, availability, and the incentives for innovation in the field. "Specific subjects to be considered include hospital mergers, the significance of non-profit status, vertical integration, quality and efficiencies, the boundaries of the state action and Noerr-Pennington doctrines, monopsony power, the adequacy of existing remedies for anticompetitive conduct, and the implications of the Commission's consumer protection mandate with regard to the performance of the health care financing and delivery markets."

The Hearings Agenda are available online, as is an explanatory Press Release (2/19/03), which includes details for submitting comments.

Justice Department Health Care Antitrust Documents - Public documents of the DOJ Antitrust Division relating to health care can be found at this page, including summaries of case filings and business review letters.

Restrictions on Online Competition The Federal Trade Commission's Workshop on Efforts to Restrict Competition on the Internet (Oct., 2002), included a panel on Health Care / Pharmceuticals / Telemedicine. You can scroll down to the topic on the linked page to find a list of panel participants and their Statements for the Workshop. An FTC press release for the Workshop noted:

In an era of skyrocketing costs, online prescription drug purchases could potentially lower prices for patients in the same way that online contact lenses lowered prices. At the same time, online pharmacies raise significant consumer protection issues. Similarly, telemedicine could give patients access to portable medical equipment and digital imaging technology even if they are too elderly or infirm to visit a hospital easily, or if they live in rural areas far from a full-service hospital. Most states, however, substantially limit online pharmaceuticals and telemedicine. Approximately thirteen states specifically prohibit electronic prescription transmission, and several states require physicians to examine the patient physically before prescribing medicine.

The AMA in Washington - The American Medical Association's Policy and Advocacy programs and materials are readily accessible through its AMA in Washington web page, which is fully searchable. Hundreds of AMA documents on antitrust and competition issues (policy papers, press releases, testimony, and lobbying materials) are available. Official AMA policies on specific issues can also be located using its PolicyFinder search tool.

Antitrust Implications of Negotiating with Third Party Payers This short monograph, written for the American Association of Physician Assistants by legal counsel at Foley, Lardner, Weissburg and Aronson, Inc. explains the ramifications for professional groups of the "basic tenet of federal and state antitrust law . . that otherwise competing sellers of services cannot directly, or indirectly (e.g., through a professional association), agree among themselves on price or price related terms at which they will sell their services. " Among topics discussed are dealing with government entities, taking surveys, and lobbying.

The Antitrust Coalition for Consumer Choice in Health Care (ACCC-HC) - This coalition describes itself as "a diverse group of employers, health plans, hospitals, providers, and others involved in the purchase, management, and delivery of health care services, who are dedicated to the preservation and promotion of competition in health care markets through strong antitrust enforcement." The site contains a wide range of materials relating to (in opposition to) antitrust waivers or exemptions that would allow physicians to negotiate collectively without antitrust liability.

ABA Antitrust Section Report on The Quality Health Care Coalition Act - This Report (Jan. 2000) states the Antitrust Section's position on granting an antitrust exemption for collective negotiation by physicians and other health care providers.

American Association of Health Plans: Antitrust Issues AAHP, an association of managed care health plans, takes positions on many competition policy issues affecting the health sector. This hyperlink will take you to AAHP's Antitrust Issues page, with links to relevant reports, issue papers and legislative testimony.

Alston & Bird Antitrust Resources - An online collection of articles, advisories and other resources (with an emphasis on health care antitrust, including provider networks and hospital mergers) by the well-known Atlanta, GA, law firm.

Health Insurance Association of America HIAA is a prominent trade association for the private health insurance industry, which often lobbies at the federal and state levels on matters affecting competition and antitrust issues affecting the health care industry. HIAA's advocacy statements, testimony and reports are archived and can be found using the site's Search box.

Health Care and Compulsory Licensing Sponsored by the Consumer Project on Technology, this page is designed to be relevant to the debate over compulsory licensing of essential medical and health care technologies, to assure broad access to all nations. For background, there are also broader discussions of the compulsory licensing of intellectual property.

BNA's Web Watch Publisher BNA often covers health care industry issues in this periodic review of online resources relating to select topics in the news or on the public agenda. There is no fee for accessing Web Watch, where you will find "links to government, industry, and academic resources on selected topics spanning the breadth of BNA coverage. New subjects will be posted weekly, and new resources will also be added to existing topics." Examples of available topics with competition policy ramifications include the economic effects (entry, pricing, etc.) of Generic Drugs and the costs of Prescription Drugs.

Insurance

The McCarran-Ferguson Act Adopted by Congress in 1945, the McCarran-Ferguson Act (cited as 15 USC 1011, et seq.) clarifies the power of individual States to regulate insurance and limits the application of many federal statutes to that industry. Section 1012(b) of the Act states that the Sherman, Clayton, and Federal Trade Commission Acts are only "applicable to the business of insurance to the extent that such business is not regulated by State Law." However, Sec. 1013(b) continues the applicability of the Sherman Act "to any agreement to boycott, coerce, or intimidate, or act of boycott, coercion, or intimidation."

The McCarran-Ferguson Act: Anticompetitive or Procompetitive? In this article from Cato Institute's Regulation, Prof. Patricia M. Danzon of the Wharton School describes several proposals that have been made to repeal or limit the insurance antitrust exemption, and argues that the McCarran-Ferguson Act has not resulted in anticompetitive behavior and shoud not be amended or repealed.

Democrats Attack Insurers' Antitrust Exemption This Yahoo/Reuters article from 01/24/03 reports that a number of Democratic senators want to scale back the insurance industry antitrust exemption, which they say is partly to blame for the soaring cost of medical malpractice insurance. The senators charged that the M-FA exemption allows malpractice insurers to "collude to set rates, resulting in higher premiums than true competition would achieve." Similarly, see statements released in September, 2002, by Penn. Rep. Joe Hoffel and by Oregon Rep. Peter DeFazio. In the Yahoo article, an industry representative replied that the exemption is needed so that insurance companies can share data and perform risk evaluations.

Supreme Court Further Restricts Insurance Industry Antitrust Exemption This legal advisory from the firm of Foley & Lardner concludes that the Supreme Court's decision in Hartford Fire Ins. v. State of California (1993) is another illustration of its increasing willingness to apply federal antitrust laws to regulated industries such as insurance.

Law & Legal Services

Editor's Note: Many of the topics in this category overlap, so we suggest scrolling through the entire section.

Applying Antitust and Competition Policy to the Legal Profession

Antitrust and the "Learned Professions" This chapter in a monograph from AAI is a concise primer on how antitcompetitive practices by professionals such as medical doctors, engineers and lawyers came to be recognized as illegal under the antitrust laws. In 1990, when the U.S. Supreme Court applied the per se antitrust rule against boycotts and price fixing conspiracies to a group of lawyers in FTC v. Sup. Ct. Trial Lawyers Ass'n, 493 U.S. 411, there was no question that antitrust applies to the legal profession, despite arguments by the defendants that they were protecting clients' rights to quality legal services and exercising First Amendment rights.

Self-Regulation and Antitrust Robert Pitofsky, who was then Chairman of the FTC, gave this address to a D. C. Bar Ass'n Symposium (1998) on whether professional self-regulation and antitrust are at odds. Although Pitofsky notes that self-regulation can be anticompetitive when it is used to disadvantage new rivals or new forms of competition, he concludes that "regulation efforts that are serious, legitimate and fair should not be blocked by rigid and outdated interpretations of antitrust laws."

The Objective of Professional Licensing In "What is the Objective of Professional Licensing? Evidence from the US Market for Lawyers" (Nov 2004), Turin Univ. Profesoor Mario Pagliero finds that the objective of such regulation in the USA is explained by capture theory, rather than public interest theory, and that "licensing increases annual entry salaries by more than $20,000, " with a total welfare loss of over $6 billion. This link accesses an abstract, but the entire study is available with a free registration.

The "Practice of Law" & "Unauthorized Practice"

Model Definition of the Practice of Law This link will take you to the home page of the American Bar Association's Task Force on the Model Definition of the Practice of Law. The Task Force was asked to determine the best approach "to address whether to create a model definition of the practice of law that would support the goal to provide the public with better access to legal services, be in concert with governmental concerns about anticompetitive restraints, and provide a basis for effective enforcement of unauthorized practice of law statutes."

The Draft Definition of "the practice of law" (09/18/02) can be read on this linked web page.

Comments to the ABA Task Force from a broad array of groups, government entities, trade associations, etc., are available at the ABA site.

The Comments of the ABA Section on Antitrust Law urge the Task Force to embrace competition between lawyers and nonlawyers, and to find other ways to protect the public from unqualified lay persons than drafting an overly broad definition of the practice of law or of unauthorized practice.

FTC and DOJ on Defining "Practice of Law" The Federal Trade Comm'n and Dept. of Justice presented joint comments (12/20/02) on the ABA's draft Model Definition of the Practice of Law. The federal antitrust agencies concluded that the proposed definition was overly broad and would injure consumers and competition. The agencies urged the Task Force to permit lay competition that is in the public interest and craft an appropriate definition after careful review of the harms and benefits of lay participation in providing law-related services.

Noting recent advocacy and enforcement efforts by each agency, the DOJ and FTC state that they "have become increasingly concerned about efforts to prevent nonlawyers from competing with attorneys in the provision of certain services through the adoption of Unauthorized Practice of Law opinions and laws by state bar agencies, courts, and legislatures."

Lawyer vs. NonLawyer In an article appearing in Legal Times (02-03-2003), James C. Turner, Executive Director of the legal reform group HALT, argues against the ABA's proposed model rule defining "practice of law" and its corollary of "unauthorized practice." Turner says the proposed model rule "poses a major threat to the rights of millions of American consumers who choose to handle their routine legal tasks with the help of nonlawyer resources." In 2002, HALT opposed attempts by Arizona attorneys to curb competition from non-lawyers by expanding the definition of the "unauthorized practice of law."

Real Estate Closings in N.C. The FTC and DOJ jointly filed this Advocacy Letter to the Ethics Committee of the North Carolina State Bar (Dec. 14. 2001). The letter urged the Committee to reconsider recent State Bar Ethics Opinions restricting the involvement of non-attorneys in real estate closings and refinancing transactions under unauthorized practice rules. On March 20, 2003, the agencies submitted similar comments to the Georgia State Bar opposing a proposal to define the drafting of deeds and related real estate closing activity as the practice of law. The agencies argued:

Consumers can benefit when nonlawyers compete to provide services that do not legitimately constitute the practice of law. Banning such competition is likely to increase closing costs and decrease convenience for Georgia consumers and businesses. . . . Antitrust laws and competition policy generally consider sweeping restrictions on competition harmful to consumers and justified only by a showing that the restriction is needed to prevent significant consumer injury.

Protecting Clients through Competition, Information and Fair Ethical Rules

The Federal Trade Commission and the Professions, by John Kwoka After reviewing the major actions of the FTC relating to the professions, this paper by Prof. John Kwoka (presented at the FTC’s 25th Anniversary Symposium) focuses on the economics of the professions, concluding that competition yields major benefits to consumers in the form of lower prices, without adverse effects on quality. (AAI WORKING PAPER #04-04, Nov. 3, 2004)

ABA Ethics 2000 The home page of the Ethics 2000 Commission allows access to the major documents showing the history, proposals and final results of the ABA's revamping of the Model Rules of Professional Responsibility, including a red-lined edition of the final Rules, showing changes from the prior ABA ethical code.

Counselors Oughtta Counsel (Not Conceal) This column, published on Prairielaw.com, explains from the consumer's perspective the failure of the proposed ABA model rules of professional responsibility to assure that legal clients are fully-informed consumers, concluding that "Rather than embracing information as the best tool for self-regulation and client protection, Ethics 2000 protects lawyers from the forces [of competition and innovation] that would be unleashed if clients were truly well-informed consumers of legal services, able to insist on their rights and make intelligent choices among meaningful options."

Brickman Testimony on Contingency Fees Cardozo Law professor Lester Brickman presented these comments to Ethics 2000 on the need for explicit rules that would help prevent excessive contingency fees by linking fees to risk and informing clients of their right to choose other fee options, such as hourly or flat fees, and to negotiate the level of a contingency fee.

FTC Letter to Ala. Supr. Ct on Lawyer Advertising In this detailed Press Release (Oct. 3, 2002), which links to the fully-footnoted, 16-page Letter (Sept.30, 2002), the FTC staff addresses several proposed restrictions on lawyer advertising, concluding that they would restrict truthful and nonmisleading information, and rejecting a "dignity of the profession" argument.

Public Citizen Comments on Ky Bar's Proposed Advertising Rules This press release (June 2, 2003) describes PC's Comments, with links to the full document (a comprehensive, fully-footnoted, 29-page-pdf. submission), and to letters sent to FTC and DOJ requesting an antitrust investigation. PC concludes that the Rules would go too far, violating the First Amendment and raising antitrust concerns.

Regulation of the Legal Profession Written by Frank H. Stevens and James H. Love (1999, 31 pp., pdf), this monograph from the Encyclopedia of Law and Economics reviews the economic literature, focusing primarly on self-regulation by the legal profession, and includes a full bibliography. Summing up: The justification for self-regulation seems to be reducing the costs of government regulation. However, much of the literature on self-regulation concludes that it operates in favor of the profession over the interests of the client -- limiting competition and raising fees and professional income.

Economic Impact of Regulating Professions Entitled "Economic impact of regulation in the field of liberal professions in different Member States," this EU report (2003) was produced by the Institute for Advanced Studies, Vienna, for the Competition Directorate-General of the European Commission. It is a comprehensive comparison of the various levels of regulation and their effects in the highly diverse European nations, covering lawyers, accountants, architects/engineers, and pharmacists.

An Executive Summary of the lengthy report is available.

The related Monti Speech, Competition in Professional Services: New Light and New Challenges, by Mario Monti, Commissioner for Competition, European Community, was delivered on the day the Report was issued (March 21, 2003). Com’r Monti discusses the issues raised in the Report, and summarizes the results, while explaining that the EU is attempting to level the competition playing field among professions in its member states, and must deal with the diverse levels of regulation. The study appears to show that lower levels of regulation result in increased competition and wealth creation (e.g., lower income per professional, more competitors in the marketplace, and more efficient units).

Overlawyered.com: Legal Ethics in Crisis Edited by Walter Olson, Overlawyered.com covers many aspects of the legal profession's effects on society, politics, and clients. The ethics page from the site's archives includes sections on excessive fees, faulty disciplinary systems, the failure to fully inform clients, and more, with links to relevant articles, sites and reports.

Need a Lawyer? Judge for Yourself The Federal Trade Commission has issued this consumer guide to choosing a lawyer, including advice about keeping fees low and choosing between price and quality. Also, in a Washington Post article (9/30/02), staff writer Caroline Mayer describes other steps taken by the FTC to keep class action fees in line with the risk taken by the lawyers involved.

ABA's Treatment of Contingency Fees In this Open Letter to the FTC on the ABA and Contingency Fees, former FTC attorney David Giacalone details bar association actions that prevent competition over personal injury fees, by removing ethical restrictions on the use of the "standard contingency fee." The Letter, which is posted on the Forum page of the HALT web site, calls for an FTC antitrust investigation, as well as a broad program to arm average consumers with the information they need to protect themselves and assert their rights as law clients.

Legal Services on the Internet

FTC Public Workshop: Online Legal Services In October of 2002, the Federal Trade Commission held a Workshop on Possible Anticompetitive Efforts to Restrict Competition on the Internet, which included a panel coverning Online Legal Services. This linked page (scroll down to Online Legal Services), lists the panel participants, with links to their Statements to the Workshop. Presenters, representing the organized bar, academia, and internet service providers, included, among others:

Villanova Law School Prof. Catherine J. Lanctot, who gives an overview of the tradeoffs between permitting unfettered competition and avoiding potential harm to the ordinary consumer, in "Regulating the Provision of Legal Services in Cyberspace."

George Jones, President of the D.C. Bar, who stressed that regulators must face the fact that ethical rules cannot stop willing buyers from finding willing sellers of services on the internet.

Prof. Joyce Palomar, of the Univeristy of Oklahoma School of Law, who focused on real estate settlement services and urged the Commission to seek empirical evidence about whether the public receives a benefit or is harmed by each regulation.

ABA President Alfred P. Carlton, Jr., who pointed out the internet's potential to bring more access and lower prices to people of low and moderate income needing legal services, but voiced concern over the increased opportunity that consumers will be misled or abused by online services. Noting the need for a balanced approach, Carlton emphasized that states should adopt the ABA's new Model Rules of Professional Responsibility, because they allow the flow of legal commerce while protecting consumers from irrevocable harm.

Internet Legal Services: Ethics.com Maintained by Peter Krakauer, this site offers information on legal ethics as related to the provision of internet legal services, using weblog format, as well as online articles and linked resources. Among the topics covered are Application Service Providers ("ASPs"), unauthorized practice, multi-jurisdictional practice, and online advertising.

Scriveners in Cyberspace In this Hofstra law review article (44 pp., pdf), Prof. Catherine J. Lanctot takes a close look at the issues raised by online document preparation (especially interactive programs that present solutions to a consumer's individual fact situation) and the regulation of the unauthorized practice of law.

Multidisciplinary Practice [MDP]

ABA on Multidisciplinary Practice by Lawyers Maintained by the ABA's Center for Professional Responsibility, this web page brings together links to information and history related to the work of the ABA's MDP Commission. The ABA Commission recommended in 1999 that lawyers, in order to preserve their historical ethical responsibilities, continue to be barred from practicing in partnerships or sharing fees with professionals of other disciplines, such as accountants, financial counselors, and consultants. Updated MDP Papers, including a list of pro and con articles, can also be found at the site.

A Revised Recommendation was adopted in July of 2000 by the ABA's House of Delegates, and urges each state to adopt ethical rules that would continue the prohibition against non-lawyers sharing fees or ownership with entities practicing law.

The ABA site includes a List of States studying or acting upon the MDP issue, with narrative explanations and links, along with a page covering State Bar MDP Committees and Reports.

The Resolution of the Board of Governors of the Arizona State Bar (May 19, 2000) is an example of a jurisdiction supporting lawyer participation in MDP.

The New Jersey Bar Assn adopted a resolution opposed to allowing MDP by lawyers.

AAI on MDP The American Antitrust Institute's position on the ABA proposal to continue to bar Multidisciplinary Practice by lawyers is summarized in this 1999 press packet, with links to many related sources. The Full AAI Report on MDP, entitled Converging Professional Services: Lawyers Against the Multidisciplinary Tide, contains a comprehenisve discussion of the antitrust issues, along with links to many statement before the ABA's MDP Commission, and related materials. AAI concludes that the ABA proposals would act to restrain competition in the market for professional services in violation of the antitrust laws, injuring consumers by denying them a full range of options as they choose among professional services.

Editor's Note: You can learn more about Consumers and Antitrust by clicking here.

Media

FCC Eases Media Ownership Rules This WashingtonPost.com article (6/3/03) describes the controversial party-line FCC action relaxing or eliminating several key media ownership restrictions. The Post's online Technology page offers numerous links on this topic. The article notes:

"The changes permit a new wave of consolidation among newspaper, television and radio companies, which proponents say will increase competition and produce more and better news coverage. Opponents fear the new rules will place too much power over public opinion in the hands of a few giant media corporations.

"By a 3 to 2 vote along party lines, the five-member commission largely lifted the 28-year-old ban that prohibited a newspaper from buying a television or radio station in the same city. The commission also allowed broadcast networks to buy more stations at the local and national levels."

A comprehensive FCC Press Release was issued along with the Commission’s ruling on June 2, 2003, with links to the statements of the chairman and other Commission members.

Senate Panel Approves Tougher Media Rules This Washington Post article (6/20/03) describes moves in the U.S. Senate to "tighten some of the Federal Communications Commission's recently adopted media ownership restrictions, out of concern that the new rules would allow too much media consolidation."

BNA WebWatch on Media Ownership As with other topics in the WebWatch series, BNA has gathered major resources on the structure, regulation, and effects of Media Ownership, available at no charge, from government, industry and academic sources, with new resources added as appropriate.

Included is a link to the FCC’s Media Ownership Page, which offers easy access to recent FCC actions, studies, speeches, proposals, etc.

NAB Rulemaking Comments The National Association of Broadcasters filed these comments in response to the FCC’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (2002), in which they review the Commission’s Broadcast Ownership Rules and Other Rules Adopted Pursuant to Section 202 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

Chairman Powell before the Media Institute In these Remarks at the Media Institute, on March 27, 2003, FCC Chairman Michael K. Powell explains his position favoring a loosening of ownership rules. Powell elaborated on his main constitutional concerns:

"My warning is this, while we are right to concern ourselves with Citizen Kane, we should not use that concern to justify the resurrection of King George. Our founding fathers said little about commercial owners of news and print, but they reserved the top spot on the bill of rights to condemn the government from foisting its values, preferences, viewpoints or tastes on a free people. This is where the gravest constitutional danger lies."

CFA/CU on the Harm from Media Concentration The Consumer Federation of America and Consumers Union summarize their perspective on Media Concentration in the title of this presentation before an Information Policy Institute forum (March 11, 2003): "Loss of Diversity, Localism and Independent Voices Harms The Public Interest: Some Recent Examples."

CJR Owners' List This page on the Columbia Journalism Review website compiles information on "Who Owns What" among the major media companies and includes links to numerous articles about the effects of concentrated media ownership on journalism.

MoveOn: Media Concentration This bulletin from the grassroots advocacy organization MoveOn deals with many issues related to Media Concentration, and includes links to compilations of statistics and other commentary on the topic.

Are Media Mergers a Menace? From the American Enterprise Institute's publication Enterprising, this article by Wm. B. Shew suggests that government regulation and interference with markets is a bigger threat to media competition and diversity than is increasing media concentration.

Media Reform Information Center Sponsored by the Corporate Accountability Project, this media information page has links to many media reform groups and to articles and information on issues related to "the media monopoly."

The Competitive Enterprise Institute CEI's Antitrust & Competition Policy page contains a large cache of materials and links promoting its libertarian perspective on Antitrust issues, which can be seen in many CEI pieces involving the media, including:

Software Wars: Open Source And The New York Times, by James DeLong (09/19/02), questioning the Time's support for open source software.

Comments Before The FCC On The EchoStar Case by James DeLong (02/04/02), supporting the merger as the appropriate free market solution to the continuing problems of television competition and broadband deployment.

AOL Time Warner? Not Big Enough for Tomorrow's Internet by Clyde Crews (02/01/00), which supports the merger, because it "demonstrates in the real world an important theoretical principle underlying free markets: No 'monopoly' . . . is ever beyond the reach of astute competitors with a new idea."

An Instant Message to AOL's Competitors by Clyde Crews (08/30/00), arguing that the FCC should not confuse helping competitors with promoting competition.

Meet the New Broadband Access Regulatory Authority (Formerly Known as the FTC) by James DeLong (12/15/00), which bemoans the AOL/Time Warner settlement with the FTC, because the Commission would intervene constantly in the battles between ISPs and AOL/TW over terms of access, and because "the agency has even, Lord help it, set up a little Robinson-Patman Act."

PBS Media Giants Page A web supplement to the Frontline program "Merchants of Cool," this webpage shows the vast holdings and linkages of the biggest media companies worldwide, including AOL Time Warner, Bertelsmann, Disney, Viacom, et al.

AAI on the AOL/Time Warner Merger In this Senate Testimony by Prof. Robert H. Lande (03/02/00), the American Antitrust Institute examines whether the antitrust laws are nuanced enough to deal with the issues of consumer choice presented by media consolidation, and suggests that "competition in terms of editorial viewpoint or gatekeeping can be guaranteed only by ensuring that a media market contains a larger number of firms than may be required in other, more conventional markets."

MediaTransparency.org This web site is "dedicated to news, opinion, analysis and investigative data related to links between conservative philanthropies and the organizations and people which they fund, and their influence on the media." It has a database of grants made by major conservative philanthropies since 1985, searchable by an array of criteria, including funder, recipient, grant purpose, and date(s). In its study of the Law & Economics movement, the liberal MT concludes that the influential movement was funded and led by conservative philanthropies, in order to re-shape law and government by (re)educating judges and other leaders.

Virtual Institute of Information This independent, internet-based "resource for telecommunications and mass media research" is sponsored by the Columbia (Univ.) Business School, and includes information and analysis about many aspects of mass media, along with comprehensive links to firms and associations in all sectors of the industry, and to relevant government agencies (worldwide).

The Newspaper Preservation Act In an attempt to keep newspapers from failing, especially if it would leave only one daily paper in a market, Congress passed NPA in 1970. (Title 15, Chapter 43 of the U.S. Code) The law creates a limited antitrust exemption, by allowing the creation of Joint Operating Agreements by newspapers, in situations where the Attorney General finds that "not more than one of the newspaper publications involved in the arrangement is a publication other than a failing newspaper, and that approval of such arrangement would effectuate the policy and purpose of this chapter."

In an article for the Columbia Journalism Review (Non./Dec. 1991), in which he calls the Newspaper Preservation Act The JOA Scam, law professor Stephen R. Barrett argues that the process of seeking approval for JOAs greatly threatens Freedom of the Press. Barrett also opines that, while it may have "preserved" a few newspapers, NPA has more likely destroyed more competition than it saved.

Communication Breakdown: Developing an Antitrust Model for Multimedia Mergers and Acquisitions This monograph by H. Peter Nesvold proposes a model for analyzing media mergers that would "address both the Chicago School and the Multivalued Approach" to mergers, by taking into account economic effects and intangible First Amendment and other socio-political concerns. Using a hypothetical merger between New York 1 and the New York Post, this model would recognize that such a merger would eliminate an important editorial voice from New York City's "marketplace of ideas."

Tipping the Antitrust Scales In this 3-part article by Andrew Leonard for Salon.com, the author describes "How the right helped make the federal courts safe for Microsoft," through the use of "hired propagandists, awash in corporate money."

Sports/Leagues

Sports Law: An Overview Cornell's Legal Information Institute has collected a number of resources related to sports law, including Antitrust issues affecting professional sports leagues.

Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 Congress enacted SBA as a statutory exemption to the antitrust laws. The Act (cited as 15 USC 1291) makes the federal antitrust laws inapplicable to any agreement transferring broadcasting rights made by an organized professional league involving the sports of football, baseball, basketball, or hockey. The Act was amended in 1966 to exempt the combining of any professional football leagues.

Antitrust Redress Against League Owners This article, entitled "Antitrust Options to Redress Anticompetitive Restraints and Monopolistic Practices by Professional Sports Leagues," by Univ. of Illinois Law Professor Stephen F. Ross, and published in Vol. 52 of the Case Western Reserve Law Review (Fall, 2001), was first presented to aai’s Second Annual Conference. The author argues that current owner agreements by North American sports leagues appear to violate the antitrust laws in a variety of ways, and suggests various remedies. (39 pp., pdf)

Is a League a Single Entity? This casenote from the Villanova Sports & Entertainment Law Journal (1998) discusses whether a sports league should be considered a single entity or a combination of competitors under the antitrust laws, and includes a description of the Sports Broadcasting Act and its history.

The Federal Base Ball Case Professional baseball's unique exemption from the antitrust laws was created when the Supreme Court held in Federal Base Ball Club of Baltimore v. National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs, 259 U.S. 200 (1922), that baseball is not interstate commerce. The Court's opinion can be found at this link. No other professional sport has been granted this court-made exemption, and Congress has not extended the blanket exemption to other sports.

Baseball's Three Antitrust Exemptions The history of baseball's antitrust exemption is described in this 1995 law review article by Joseph J. McMahon, Jr. (2 Vill. Sports & Ent. L.J. 213). The author argues that there are actually three different antitrust examptions for baseball: the "whole business" exemption, the "reserve system and league structure" exemption, and the "reserve system" exemption.

Why the Antitrust Exemption is Important This short article from USAToday (12/06/01) describes the importance of an antitrust exemption to the issue of moving major league teams, and links to stories covering congressional attempts to repeal baseball's court-made exemption.

Keep Baseball's Antitrust Exemption Narrow In this Amicus Brief filed by Stephen Ross of the University of Illinois Law School, on behalf of AAI and Consumers Federation of America, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals is urged to keep the baseball exemption narrow in a case involving a proposed contraction of the number of teams in Major League Baseball. In a related study on the The Economics of Baseball Contraction (Nov., 2001), for the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR), AAI Advisor Roger G. Noll examines whether a proposed reduction in the number of teams makes sense financially to both the owners that would fold their teams and the remaining owners who would pay for the contraction.

Football Antitrust Timeline This article from the Seattle Times (02/26/03), titled "The Road to Freedom," traces the antitrust history between and among players and owners, starting with the 1974 free agency battle and players' strike.

Mark's Sports Law News Compiled by Mark Conrad, this site offers commentary and materials on sports law issues, history and jargon, as well as an archive of important sports-related court decisions, including antitrust cases such as Brown v. Pro Football (dealing with the so-called "nonstatutory labor exemption") and Fraser v. MLS (examining the "single entity" doctrine in the context of professional soccer). [Editor's Note: when last reviewed (2/03) this site had not been updated since 12/01.]

Transportation

Antitrust and Regulatory Law Developments for Transportation Practitioners - Edited by attorney Vincent F. Prada, of the Washington, D.C. law firm Sidley & Austin, this site offers "summaries of recent court decisions and other developments in antitrust law and economic regulation, with a particular emphasis on developments affecting railroads and other surface freight transportation modes." It includes a piece on Transportation Mergers (June, 2000).

Department of Transportation - Proposed Airline Competition Policy - Proposed policy to guide DOT enforcement actions against unfair exclusionary practices in commercial aviation "

Mergers Between Major Airlines Subtitled "The Anti-competitive and Anti-Consumer Effects of the Creation of a Private Cartel," this report by Mark N. Cooper, Director of Research, Consumer Federation of America is presented here as a statement before the House Committee on Energy & Commerce (March 21, 2001). Cooper concludes that, because the industry cannot produce a consumer-friendly, competitive marketplace, government must step in to prevent predatory practices, allow competitive access to major hubs, and provide consumers direct protection from poor quality services.

Travel Web Sites Selling International Airline Tickets - This "in-dept examination", prepared by William J. McGee for Consumer WebWatch, concluded that "that the online international airline market is robust and competitive, and chock full of good deals. The more disturbing news is that many of these low fares are difficult to book." (Sept. 2004) [Keywords: Travel, airfares, airlines, Internet, Web, rates, integrated sites, branded sites, price comparison, taxes, fees, itineraries, matrix, fare-jumping, disclosure, bias]

Aviation Consumer Action Project - Paul Hudson is head of this Naderite organization that focuses on aviation safety, but also addresses competition issues in air transportation.

Utilities & Deregulation (e.g., Natural Gas, Electricity, Telecommunications)

C.H. Guernsey & Company's Antitrust Links - "These pages were created to provide a resource for researchers interested in the application of antitrust law to the natural gas, electric and telecommunications sectors. The links emphasize the significant impact of deregulation on current market structures within these industries. " This site includes an extensive compilation of Federal and State Antitrust Laws, and of cases specific to the utility industries, sorted by statutory section, subject area and industry; it is updated bi-weekly and users can arrange to receive notice of all updates by e-mail The site also has extensive Energy Regulatory and Restructuring Links.

Deregulation.com The law firm of Robinson & Cole sponsors this useful web site, which offers information and many links to relevant deregulatory and procompetitive activity in the Gas, and Telecommunications, and Electric industries. You will find a brief description of federal regulatory structure for each industry, with summaries and links to important deregulation and competition legislation, rules, policy statements and proposals on the federal level and for each of the seven Northeastern states.

FTC Staff Report on Electric Power Regulatory Reform (Oct. 2001) This comprehensive report and policy analysis examines numerous competition and consumer protection issues that arise in restructuring the electric power industry. The topics were addressed by FTC staff in comments to state regulatory commissions and to FERC.

EnergyMerger.org Launched in July 2005, this website has been created by the American Antitrust Institute to provide an organized information clearinghouse for current electricity and gas mergers. It will compile publicly-available filings in state and federal regulatory proceedings, as well as commentary, analysis, and opinion . The Exelon/Public Service Electric & Gas (PSEG) merger is the first transaction to be covered at EnergyMerger.org. Information on the website has been collected, vetted, organized, and made fully searchable and easily browsable, in an effort to improve public access to the competition and consumer welfare ssues raised by these complex and large transactions.

EnergyOnline This site is a web service of LCG Consulting, and offers news and analysis relating to the electricity and gas industries, with archived reports and coverage of industry legislation, regulation, antitrust cases, and competition issues.

CEI on Regulatory Reform and Deregulation - The Competitive Enterprise Institute has produced numerous essays and reports on competition and Regulatory Reform which are available at this site, including several reports on Electricity.

NERA's Global Energy Regulation Newsletter Sponsored and produced by NERA, this monthly Newsletter compiles brief summaries of news stories about energy regulation around the world. The coverage includes network regulation, industry restructuring, and the organization of electricity and gas markets. "The 'GERN' allows energy sector professionals to easily keep in touch with looming problems, the latest developments in regulatory methods, and innovative solutions."

NERA's Energy Regulation Briefs Published three or four times per year, ERB summarizes NERA's current views on the economics behind topical developments in energy sector regulation. Previous issues have discussed regulators' use of "benchmarking," FERC's Order 2000, problems in the California electricity sector, and competition policy in the UK electricity market.

FCC's Mixed Vote on Competition This Washington Post article analyzes the Commission's decision (2/20/03) to preserve regulations mandating competitor access to local telephone lines, while removing similar rules for high-speed Internet lines (Broadband). The FCC decision and the statements of its split panel of Commissioners can be found at FCC.gov.

When Must a Firm Deal With a Rival? This 8-page paper (May 2004) from Morgan, Lewis lawyers Edward D. Cavanagh and Jonathan M. Rich looks at the Supreme Court deicsion in Verizon Commications v. Trinko, LLP, 540 U.S. ______, 124 S. Ct. 872 (2004). The Verizon Court held that Verizon did not violate the antitrust laws when it failed to provide competing providers of local telephone service (known as "local exchange service") with reasonable access to Verizon’s local telephone network.-- concluding that the Telecommunications Act of 1996 neither replaced the Sherman Act nor created new competition rule, Interestingly, and perhaps significantly, Justice Scalia took the opportunity to review (and arguably alter) the law of monopolization. The opinion is a strong defense both of the incentives created by allowing firms to gain monopoly power and of the right of a monopolist to refuse to deal with a rival.

Adopting a decidedly Chicago School posture, the Court cautions against judicial intervention to force a monopolist to alter its business practices, stressing (1) the complexity of monopolization cases generally; (2) the potentially high cost of error in wrongly condemning lawful conduct as violative of Section 2; and (3) the high costs of judicial administration and day-to-day supervision of communications companies. The Court eschews antitrust as an all-purpose remedy to enhance competition, concluding that, while Section 2 prohibits monopolization, a lawful monopolist cannot be forced to alter its practices whenever a court believes that an alternative course of conduct would enhance competition.

The Center for a Competitive Waste Industry - This site includes articles on competition, consolidation, and mergers in the Waste Industry.

Business.com - Waste Management Page - This links brings you to the Main Page for Waste Management in the Industry Center of Business.com. Included are links to web industry associations, members, publications, regulators, etc.

State of Utah Awards Research Grant to AAI to Study Medical Waste Industry The January 21, 2003 Consent Judgment in State of Utah v. Stericycle, Inc., et al., Civ. No. 2:03 CV 49 (D. Utah 2003) requires the BFI Waste Systems of North America contribute $100,000 to fund analyses of ways to increase competition and to fund new entry or expansion in the medical waste industry. The American Antitrust Institute's proposal for a $30,000 research grant was approved for legal and economic research that will facilitate future enforcement efforts by other antitrust enforcers in the medical waste industry.

Industry Research Desk - This site from Polson's Enterprises offers an annotated collection of industry resources, including a Step by Step guide entitled "How to Learn About An Industry or Specific Company," and an extensive Industry Portals Page listing sites that have collected content and links on a broad array of specific industries.

Business.com Business.com's Industry Center contains "in-depth and updated" profiles, news, and events for over 50 industries. Clicking on the "News" heading for an industry gives daily, time-stamped news briefs from leading industry-related publications, and a page-long profile overviewing the industry. Websites for industry members are also listed. The Search function allows access to detailed information about 10,000 US companies and the people who run them, including stock quotes, news, balance sheet information and biographies of executives.

ZapData.com Industry Research ZapData.com offers free industry research based on SIC codes, claiming "these industry research reports would typically cost $100 or more and would take weeks to generate from other business sources. Now you can build SIC code industry reports in real-time using up-to-date D&B business data." The reports offer statistics on total and average annual sales and people employed, and can be created using analysis by market size, company size, state or metro area (using 4-digit SIC code), and specialty (using 8-digit SIC codes).

Hoover's Online: Companies and Industries Home Page - Hoover's claims to have compiled information on over 300 industries and millions of companies. Must subscribe to have access to certain levels of information.

Business 2.0 - Well-organized information on dozens of industries, along with annotated links to selected websites that serve, cover, analyze each industry.

Competitive Intelligence (CI) Resources for the Legal Community This 21-screen Power Point presentation by Sabrina I. Pacifici is designed to help users make a thorough-but-quick web search for information about a specific company. The guide provides links to recommended online resources that include: search engines, business sites, people trackers, e-newsletters, financial newspapers, journals, web directories, bibliographies, court docketing services, news aggregators, and examples of comprehensive databases from Dialog, Westlaw and Lexis.

IndustryLink This site calls itself "The Premier Directory of Links to Industry Websites." Clicking on the "Resource Sites" section in the category menu box for each industry, yields a list of sites designed to provide research, statistics, and similar information related to the particular industry.

Stock Market Yellow Pages SMYP describes itself as "the only website where you can search for public companies by their descriptions. It also shows excerpts of the description in the results and direct links to your favorite information providers!"

NewsDirectory.com: Industry Trade Publications - Links to industry trade publications covering over 60 industries..

U.Pitt Library: Business & Company Resource Center - This page uses tips and links to guide the user to resources on particular industries. It includes sections on: Background Information, Trends, and Projections; Market Share and Company Rankings; Current Activities; Identifying Companies within an Industry; Financial Ratios; Business Statistics; and Specialized Industry Resources.

CAROL - Company Annual Reports On-Line CAROL is an on-line service offering direct links to the financial pages of listed companies in Europe and the USA. CAROL provides direct access to companies’ balance sheets, profit & loss statements, financial highlights etc. Access is free of charge, but the user must register.