A US Court of Appeals narrows the state action exemption (North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiners)

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that North Carolina’s Dental Board cannot ban non-dentists from offering teeth-whitening service, upholding the Federal Trade Commission’s finding that the practice was anticompetitive. The ruling represents the FTC’s latest victory in its push to narrowly delineate the state action doctrine, which the dental board had raised in defense of its actions. The case is The North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiners v. Federal Trade Commission (No. 12-1172, May 31, 2013). The state action doctrine exempts state entities from federal antitrust scrutiny when there is a clearly articulated state regulatory policy and active state supervision over any private