The US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit finds that the District Court should not have dismissed a monopolization and tying arrangement suit in the telecoms sector (Comcast / Viamedia)

On February 24th, a Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals panel ruled unanimously that a District Court should not have dismissed a monopolization and tying arrangement suit brought against Comcast by Viamedia, a supplier of advertising services to cable companies and other television content distributors. [1] Viamedia had claimed that Comcast excluded it from the cable television advertising markets in the Detroit, Chicago, and Hartford, Ct. metropolitan areas by refusing to work with programming distributors in those markets who do not use Comcast sales representatives in order to gain access to Comcast-controlled “Interconnects.” The panel ruled 2-1, however, that summary judgment dismissal should not have been granted on the claim that the conduct also constituted an unlawful tying