DOJ won’t challenge MRC

MRC requested a business review letter from the Antitrust Division expressing its enforcement intentions with respect to a proposed change to its current audit and accreditation process. MRC wants rating services seeking to replace one of their currency audience measurement products (AMPs) to obtain accreditation of the new product, and at a minimum submit impact data and undergo an independent audit, prior to commercialization.

The Department's position was stated in a business review letter from Thomas Barnett, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Department's Antitrust Division, to counsel for MRC.

MRC has evaluated and accredited AMPs since 1964, using independent auditors to assess products' methodology and the data supporting the methodology (impact data).

Currency AMPs obtain accreditation of the new product, and at a minimum submit impact data and undergo an independent audit, prior to commercialization. MRC confirmed to DOJ that a rating service's participation in MRC's audit and accreditation process, today and as modified by its proposal, is voluntary and may be undertaken by a rating service at any time.

"Auditing and accrediting activities by associations of customers do not necessarily raise antitrust issues," Barnett said in the letter. "In fact, with appropriate safeguards, auditing and accrediting activities can provide valuable, unbiased information to the marketplace."

DOJ concurred that in this instance such activities can reduce the confusion and uncertainty among buyers and sellers of advertising that can occur when a Currency AMP is replaced by an unknown and untested one.