Metronet Services Corporation Metronet Telemanagement Corporation v. Qwest Corporation

The Supreme Court vacated our prior decision in this antitrust case, MetroNet Serv’s Corp. v. U S West Communications, 329 F.3d 986 (9th Cir.2003), and remanded for further consideration in light of its recent decision in Verizon Communications Inc. v. Law Offices of Curtis V. Trinko, LLP, 540 U.S. 398 , 124 S.Ct. 872 , 157 L.Ed.2d 823 (2004). Qwest Corp. v. MetroNet Serv’s Corp., — U.S. -, 124 S.Ct. 1144 , 157 L.Ed.2d 1040 (2004). Qwest Corp., formerly U S West Communications, is the incumbent local exchange carrier (“ILEC”) serving the state of Washington. After Qwest offered volume discounts on phone services to businesses with more than 20 phone lines, MetroNet Services Corp. and MetroNet Telemanagement Corp. (collectively “MetroNet”) began purchasing those services from Qwest and reselling them . to small businesses with 20 or fewer phone lines. MetroNet received the volume discounts by aggregating the phone lines of these small businesses. In 1997, in order to eliminate resale of its services, Qwest changed the pricing structure of its calling features and required that customers have at least 21 lines at each location in order to receive the volume discount.

In 2000,…