On August 29, 2005, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (J. Cote) granted summary judgment in favor of the five largest carriers of wireless telephone services in a class action treble damage lawsuit alleging violations of Section 1 of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1.

Anderson Kill represented Sprint in the action. The plaintiffs had alleged unlawful tying in violation of Section 1 based upon each carrier’s alleged practice of requiring customers to purchase an approved handset in order to subscribe to the carrier's wireless telephone services. In granting summary judgment to Sprint and the other carriers, Judge Cote found that plaintiffs' claims of unlawful tying were deficient in that none of the defendant carriers had sufficient power in the market for wireless services to coerce subscribers to purchase wireless handsets and that plaintiffs failed to offer evidence sufficient to show any anticompetitive effects in the market for wireless handsets based on the actions of the carriers. For more information, please contact:Carol A. UeckermanCommunications/Marketing Manager(212) 278-1339cueckerman@andersonkill.com