Free State Foundation President Randolph May issued the following statement regarding the decision by U.S. District Court Judge Victor Marrero rejecting certain states' suit to block the T-Mobile/Sprint merger:
"I'm pleased that Judge Marrero has denied the attempt of a minority of states to second-guess the considered decisions of the Department of Justice and the FCC to allow the T-Mobile/Sprint merger to be consummated. In comments before the FCC and before the District Court, I explained that, all things considered, the merger was likely to increase competition and overall consumer welfare not only in today’s wireless marketplace but in the broader telecommunications marketplace as well.
The District Court properly recognized that the states bore the burden of persuasion of showing that the proposed merger would substantially lessen competition in the market for retail mobile wireless telecommunications services and that they failed to carry this evidentiary burden. Especially important is the court's recognition of the 'complexity and dynamism’ of the wireless market. Indeed, the court properly acknowledged that 'the intensely competitive and rapidly changing environment in which complex and dynamic markets operate' rendered unlikely, in the real world of the wireless market as opposed to the one conjured up in theoretical models, that the anticompetitive business strategies and market effects that the states predicted would occur.
Now that the District Court has ruled, my hope is that the states will forbear from further litigation and that the California Public Utilities Commission will quickly act on the merger. It's time to let the competitive and dynamic marketplace that Judge Marrero identified work to enhance consumer welfare."
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