Law Commons^™

The Competitive Advantages Explanation For Interbrand Restraints: An Antitrust Analysis, Peter M. Gerhart

Faculty Publications

This article argues that antitrust doctrine concerning intrabrand restrictions is unsatisfactory because the economic theory of intrabrand restrictions has been only partially developed and articulated. An unfilled and largely unacknowledged analytical gap exists between the view that intrabrand restraints are generally anticompetitive and the view that intrabrand restraints are generally efficiency-producing. That gap is the failure to explore how a manufacturer benefits from intrabrand restraints other than by increasing the profitability of his dealers. This article attempts to fill that gap by drawing on the theory of imperfect competition to explain why manufacturers find it profitable to restrict intrabrand competition …