Foreign Company Pleads Guilty to Felony in Connection with an Antitrust Merger Case

In an extraordinary move, the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ) brought a criminal prosecution against CMET, Inc. (CMET) for obstruction of justice relating to the settlement of a merger case. The merger, which dated back to 2001, involved the combination of DTM Corporation and 3D Systems, two of only three firms that produced industrial rapid prototyping (IRP), a technology that enables a machine to transform a drawing into a three-dimensional model. The DOJ moved to block the transaction, alleging that the proposed transaction was likely to reduce competition in violation of Section 7 of the Clayton Act, but settled the case when the parties agreed to license their technology to a third party. CMET was one of several bidders for the license.

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