STATEMENT OF COMMISSIONER THOMAS B. LEARY

Antitrust Guidelines for Collaborations Among Competitors

I support publication of these Guidelines, which make a significant contribution toward the articulation and synthesis of relevant antitrust principles in an important area of antitrust law.

The Guidelines are the product of lengthy discussions between the two agencies that have issued them, and also reflect comments from private parties. Inevitably, there were accommodations and compromises. Although I do not necessarily agree with every statement in the Guidelines, I believes that my individual differences are less important than the consensus view that they reflect. These Guidelines give private counselors, who are on the front line of antitrust compliance efforts, valuable insights into the enforcement philosophy of the antitrust agencies.