CenturyLink Settles With DOJ on Violation of Level 3 Purchase Divestiture

CenturyLink settled with DOJ over claims it violated a divestiture plan related to approval of CenturyLink’s 2017 acquisition of Level 3, the Antitrust Division said Friday. U.S. District Court in Washington in 2018 approved the plan aimed at remedying antitrust concerns under Clayton Act Section 7 (see 1803080024). The company violated provisions barring it “from soliciting customers that switched to the buyer of the divestiture assets” by “initiating contact on over 70 occasions over more than a year with former Level 3 customers who elected to switch to” Syringa Networks, “the divestiture buyer in the Boise City-Nampa, Idaho” metropolitan area (see 1805310066), DOJ said. “CenturyLink does not deny the United States’ allegations.” The FCC also cleared the DOJ-required communications license transfers to Syringa and companies in two other metropolitan areas (see 1805010017). CenturyLink agreed to pay the federal government to “defray the costs of” DOJ’s “investigation of CenturyLink’s violations of the court order,” the department said. The company agreed to extend by two years its non-solicitation commitment period for the geographic area and allow appointment of an independent monitoring trustee. “When a defendant violates the terms of a settlement decree, it must be held accountable to its obligations,” said Antitrust Division head Makan Delrahim. “Today’s motion to amend the Final Judgment ensures that consumers get the benefit of competition otherwise lost by” CenturyLink/Level 3. “Although our views differed from the DOJ's on some issues, we are pleased to have reached an amicable resolution,” CenturyLink said in a statement. The FCC declined to comment; Syringa didn’t comment.