CenturyLink pays to settle federal allegations that it broke antitrust deal in Boise
The internet and landline-phone service provider CenturyLink Inc. settled with the Department of Justice over allegations that it had engaged in anticompetitive business practices in the Boise area arising from its 2017 acquisition of Level 3 Communications.
The acquisition gave CenturyLink an additional 200,000 miles of fiber-optic networks, allowing it to control 70% of the connections between buildings and fiber optic lines from Boise to Nampa. That violated federal antitrust laws.
To preserve competition in the Boise market, the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division required CenturyLink to sell off some of its fiber-optic infrastructure in the Boise area as a condition of the acquisition. The company also agreed not to solicit those buyers’ customers for two years after the sale.
But it did anyway, the Justice Department said in a news release.
After CenturyLink sold some of its assets to Syringa Networks, the company initiated contact more than 70 times with former Level 3 customers who had switched to Syringa.
“When a defendant violates the terms of a settlement decree, it must be held accountable to its obligations to the department and the American consumer,” said Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “Today’s motion to amend the Final Judgment ensures that consumers get the benefit of competition otherwise lost by CenturyLink’s acquisition of Level 3 Communications.”
As part of its settlement, CenturyLink agreed not to solicit customers who switched to Syringa for another two years. It will also pay the federal government $250,000 to offset the costs of the investigation.
“While CenturyLink disagrees with the Government’s characterization of the alleged violations, we were pleased with the cooperative partnership of the Department of Justice in reaching a resolution that was in the best interest of all parties,” wrote CenturyLink spokesman Mark Molzen in an email to the Statesman.
This story was originally published August 17, 2020 at 1:01 PM.
