Law Commons^™

Controlling Above-Cost Predation: An Alternative To Weyerhaeuser And Brooke Group, Jack Kirkwood

Faculty Articles

This article proposes a new legal standard for predatory pricing, predatory bidding, and possibly other forms of exclusionary pricing - the welfare/economic sense standard. Under this standard, the plaintiff would have to show that the challenged conduct was not only profitable to the defendant but harmful to the long-run welfare of consumers or suppliers. Moreover, even if the plaintiff made that showing, the defendant would escape liability if it proved that its conduct made economic sense without regard to its anticompetitive effects. The article argues that the new standard is superior to the below-cost/recoupment standard of Brooke Group and Weyerhaeuser …