The Federal Trade Commission today announced that it investigating ReturnPath Inc.’s monopolistic tactics in trying to hire all of the deliverability industry insiders. In a 4-1 vote to open an investigation of the company, the Commission wrote in its majority statement that “It’s just not fair. After learning of the recent hire of Vinay Goel, we have decided to proceed with the investigation of ReturnPath’s attempt to corner the market on deliverability professionals.”
Interested parties have raised concerns about the proposed acquisition’s impact on the ability for organizations to do their own deliverability in-house. The Commissioners wrote that “the sole purpose of federal antitrust review of hiring is to identify and remedy transactions that harm competition,” the FTC lacks the legal authority to block the hiring on grounds, or require conditions to hiring, that do not relate to antitrust. Adding, however, that it takes in-house deliverability issues very seriously, the Commission cross-referenced its release of a set of proposed hiring principles that were also announced today.
The statement concluded, “The markets within the deliverability space continue to quickly evolve, and predicting their future course is not a simple task. Accounting for the dynamic nature of an industry requires solid grounding in facts and the careful application of tested antitrust analysis. Because the allegations support the theories of potential competitive harm, there is a basis on which to seek to investigate the hiring of Vinay Goel. We want to be clear that we will closely watch this market and, should ReturnPath engage in unlawful hiring or other anticompetitive conduct, the Commission intends to act quickly.”
p.s. just kidding about the FTC part… but ReturnPath really did hire Vinay!
Last 5 posts by Joshua Baer
- Please take a minute to vote for email panels at #SXSW 2012 - September 1st, 2011
- Looking Toward The Next Generation of Delivery Solutions - May 13th, 2011
- Welcome Green Arrow! - April 21st, 2011
- Wake up! @SilverPop adds a new feature to "Snooze" instead of Unsubscribe - April 21st, 2011
- Naturally Curly Seeks Email Marketing Manager - March 20th, 2011
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