The small but fast-growing British airline said it will challenge the British government's recent finding that a merger wouldn't be anticompetitive.
The suit, filed in federal court in Chicago in 1982, claimed that AT&T acted to prevent competitors from making and selling phone equipment from 1972 to 1980 by using "illegal" and anticompetitive" activities.
A federal judge found the merger anticompetitive based on his initial review of the case before trial and issued a preliminary injunction ordering American Stores to continue to run the two chains separately while the case was pending.
The merger of Coors and Stroh would be twice as anticompetitive as allowed under an index the Justice Department uses in determining whether to join antitrust suits, Bitting maintained.
Such a move "would probably preclude the commission from effectively restoring competition" between the two rivals, if it determines that the merger would be anticompetitive, according to the Justice Department.
Similar to a bill the committee approved last year, it would prevent the insurance industry from fixing prices, monopolizing markets or engaging in other anticompetitive behavior.
But in light of Trailways' current position, Mr. Rule asserted, antitrust enforcement officials are satisfied that "no less anticompetitive purchaser for the bus line is available."