American Ad Management, Inc. v. GTE Corp.

INTRODUCTION

Plaintiffs/appellants American Ad Management, Inc. and O’Connor Agency (collectively “American”) originally filed separate complaints against defendants/appellees General Telephone Company of California and related companies (collectively “GTE”). These eom-plaints alleged various federal anti-trust violations, as well as supplemental state claims. 1 The two cases, which arose out of the same course of conduct by GTE, were consolidated by the district court and summary judgment was granted in favor of GTE in both cases. American timely filed its notice of appeal, and therefore jurisdiction in this Court is proper under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 . We reverse and remand.

American is an Authorized Selling Representative (“ASR”) which sells advertising in phone directories which are commonly known as “yellow pages.” GTE is a publisher of yellow pages. Although the characterization of this relationship is the subject of much of the present dispute, at this point it will suffice to note that customers may purchase yellow pages advertising either directly from a publisher such as GTE, or through the use of an ASR such as American.

On March 15, 1994, the district court granted…