General Motors Corporation

Text (OCR of the scan at left; may contain errors)

IN THE MATTER OF GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION, ET AL.

SET ASIDE ORDER IN REGARD TO ALLEGED VIOLA non OF SEe. 3 OF THE CLA YTON ACT AND SEe. OF THE FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION ACT Docket 3152. Modified Consent Order, June 1942-- Set As/de Order, Apr/118, 1995 This order reopens a 1942 modified consent order -- which prohibited the respondent from coercing or intimidating its automobile retail dealers into purchasing accessories supplied by General Motors or from its designated source -- and sets aside the modified consent order pursuant to the Commission s Sunset Policy Statement, under which the Commission presumes that the public interest requires tenninating competition orders that are more than 20 years old.

ORDER REOPENING PROCEEDING AND SETTING ASIDE ORDER On February 6, 1995, General Motors Corporation ("GM" ), as I filedrespondent and successor to General Motors Sales Corporation, its Petition to Reopen and Vacate Modified Order ("Petition ) in this matter. GM requests that the Commission set aside the 1942 modified consent order in this matter pursuant to Section 5(b) of the Federal Trade Commission Act, 15 USe. 45(b), Rule 2.51 of the Commission s Rules of Practice, 16 CFR 2.5 I , and the Statement of Policy With Respect to Duration of Competition Orders and Statement of Intention to Solicit Public Comment With Respect to Duration of Consumer Protection Orders, issued on July 22, 1994 and published at 59 Fed. Reg. 45,286-92 (Sept. I , 1994) ("Sunset Policy Statement ). In the Petition, GM affirmatively states that it has not engaged in any conduct violating the tenns of the order. The Petition was placed on the public record, and the thirty-day comment period expired on March 27, 1995. No comments were received. The Commission in its Sunset Policy Statement said, in relevant part, that "effective immediately, the Commission will presume, in 1 Since the Commission issued the order in this maller General Motors Sales Corporation, a named respondent in the order, was dissolved and its assets now reside within respondent General Motors Corporation.

GENERAL MOTORS CORPORA non, ET AL. 519 518 Set Aside Order the context of petitions to reopen and modify existing orders, that the public interest requires setting aside orders in effect for more than twenty years.'" The Commssion s modified consent order in Docket No. 3152 was issued on June 25 , 1942, and has been in effect for more than fifty years. Consistent with the Commission s Sunset Policy Statement, the presumption is that the order should be terminated. Nothing to overcome the presumption having been presented, the Commission has detennined to reopen the proceeding and set aside the order in Docket No. 3152. Accordingly, It is ordered, That this matter be, and it hereby is reopened;

It isfurther ordered, That the Commission s order in Docket No. 3152 be, and it hereby is, set aside, as of the effective date of this order.

- Sa .sunset Policy StatemerJ!, 59 Fed- Reg. at 45. 289. Complaint 119 FTC.