The U.S. Supreme Court heard the North Carolina teeth-whitening case a few weeks ago. For those who are not aware of it, the case raises the issue of what level of state supervision of a professional licensing enterprise is necessary before regulatory activities run the risk of antitrust scrutiny. (I have been accused of oversimplifying the matter, but this is what I glean from Professor Eugene Volokh’s blog, which is about the depth of both my research and ability to comprehend.)
In any event, the North Carolina dentists got angry that non-dentists were offering teeth whitening at malls, so they brought an enforcement action based on their role as the licensing authority. The Federal Trade Commission felt it was an attempt at illegal market protection and told the dentists to stop. (When I did some research, I found that there are a bunch of FTC versus dentists cases. I guess they do this kind of thing a lot.)
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