The United States Supreme Court, in a unanimous opinion written Justice Sotomayor, overturned an Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals and Georgia District Court finding “state action” antitrust immunity in the case of FTC v. Phoebe Putney Health System, Inc. et al, No. 11-1160. Had they ruled otherwise there would have opened a huge whole in the FTC’s ability to regulate anticompetitive conduct by state sub-entities under a general grant of state authority. Georgia like many states has a hospital authorities law that permits counties and or municipalities to create quasi governmental entities with broad grants of powers to operate health care facilities.
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