In United States telecommunication law, the Modification of Final Judgment (MFJ) is the August 1982 consent decree concerning the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) and its subsidiaries, in the antitrust lawsuit United States v. AT&T of 1974. The terms required the Bell System divestiture, including removing local telephone service from AT&T control and placing business restrictions on the divested local telephone companies in exchange for removing other longstanding restrictions on what businesses AT&T could own and manage.[1]: 125
The decree replaced the entirety of the previous final judgment of January 24, 1956 in the case United States v. Western Electric Inc.,[2][3] which had been transferred to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia and is referred to in the MFJ as the Western Electric case,[4]: 143 (also footnote 4) and consolidated with the existing United States v. AT&T filed on November 20, 1974, which is referred to in the MFJ as the AT&T action[4]: 139 or AT&T case.
The decree was made with Harold H. Greene as presiding judge.[4]
- ^ Noll, A. Michael (2010). Highway of Dreams: A Critical View Along the Information Superhighway (digital printing ed.). New York City: Routledge. ISBN 9781136685033. LCCN 96041620.
- ^ Modification of Final Judgement (archived scan) in United States of America v. Western Electric Company, Incorporated, and American Telephone and Telegraph Company. United States District Court for the District of Columbia, Civil Action No. 82-0192, filed August 24, 1982. Retrieved 2019-01-29.
- ^ Sullivan, Lawrence A.; Hertz, Ellen (September 1990). "The AT&T Antitrust Consent Decree: Should Congress Change the Rules". Berkeley Technology Law Journal. 5 (2). University of California, Berkeley, School of Law: 236. doi:10.15779/Z38JH3G. ISSN 1086-3818.
- ^ a b c "United States v. American Tel. and Tel. Co., 552 F. Supp. 131 (D.D.C. 1983)". Justia. Retrieved January 29, 2019. Copy of full opinion accompanying the Modification of Final Judgment.