Law Commons^™

Illustrating A Behaviorally Informed Approach To Antitrust Law: The Case Of Predatory Pricing, Avishalom Tor

Journal Articles

One of the core assumptions of the traditional economic approach to antitrust law is that competitors are perfectly rational, profit-maximizing, decision makers. Sometimes, this assumption serves as a useful simplification of business behavior, providing an effective foundation for antitrust doctrine. At other times, however, assuming strictly rational behavior on the part of competitors is not “approximately right” but, instead, “perfectly wrong.” In these latter cases, the reliance on the perfect rationality assumption can lead scholars to mispredict market behavior and, possibly, advocate erroneous prescriptions for antitrust policy. In contrast, a behaviorally informed approach to antitrust law is based on scientific …

Guilds At The Millennium: Antitrust And The Professions: Introduction, Susan Beth Farmer

Journal Articles

This Article is an Introduction to the Symposium Issue of the Loyola Consumer Law Review. The papers published in the symposium issue were originally presented at the meeting of the Section on Antitrust and Economic Regulation of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) at the Association Annual Conference in 2002.

Antitrust Options To Redress Anticompetitive Restraints And Monopolistic Practices By Professional Sports Leagues, Stephen F. Ross

Journal Articles

The hallmark of an antitrust violation is an agreement which has the effect of raising price, lowering output, or rendering output unresponsive to consumer demand. Owners of clubs comprising Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, and the National Hockey League engage in a variety of exploitative activities that consumers cannot avoid by substituting rival products. The purpose of this Article is to analyze specific areas where these monopoly sports leagues harm a variety of groups, through the maintenance of a monopolistic structure that precludes competitive entry, or through specific restraints that have demonstrable anticompetitive effects. …

The Dynamics Of Daubert: Methodology, Conclusions, And Fit In Statistical And Econometric Studies, David H. Kaye

Journal Articles

This paper reviews the development of the law governing the admissibility of statistical studies. It analyzes the leading cases on scientific evidence and suggests that both the "reliability" and the "general acceptance" standards raise two major difficulties - the "boundary problem" of identifying the type of evidence that warrants careful screening and the "usurpation problem" of keeping the trial judge from closing the gate on evidence that should be left for the jury to assess.

The paper proposes partial solutions to these problems, and it applies them to statistical and econometric proof, particularly in the context of a recent antitrust …

The Stealth Assault On Antitrust Enforcement: Raising The Barriers For Antitrust Injury And Standing, Joseph P. Bauer

Journal Articles

The first Annual Conference sponsored by the American Antitrust Institute featured a number of prominent speakers and explored a number of important issues. The Conference had two principal focuses: substantive questions of antitrust liability and the future direction of public enforcement of the antitrust laws by the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division and by the Federal Trade Commission. However, an issue of at least equal importance was barely discussed, although it has seriously affected the scope and direction of the antitrust laws. That issue: Private enforcement of the antitrust laws, and the significant undermining of those efforts by a number …

More Lessons From The Laboratories: Cy Pres Distributions In Parens Patriae Antitrust Actions Brought By State Attorneys General, Susan Beth Farmer

Journal Articles

The structure of the article is outlined in the Table of Contents. First, the article introduces a problem - the denial of an effective remedy for consumers overcharged by antitrust conspiracies, then it describes the legislative solution and identifies the unintended consequences that followed. Next, it proposes two alternative means to resolve the newly discovered issue and, finally, structures a proposed test for courts seeking to order the most efficient and effective remedy for consumers in these cases. The article explains that the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act was adopted to fill a gap in antitrust remedies, which had made treble …

The Curt Flood Act Of 1998: A Hollow Gesture After All These Years?, Edmund P. Edmonds

Journal Articles

This article discusses the Curt Flood Act of 1998 and explores the nonstatutory labor exemption the Supreme Court has applied to professional sports leagues. It also explores the likely impact of the Curt Flood Act on the rights of players or managers to use antitrust laws effectively against one another.

Altering The Balance Between State Sovereignty And Competition: The Impact Of Seminole Tribe On The Antitrust State Action Immunity Doctrine, Susan Beth Farmer

Journal Articles

In the post-Seminole Tribe world, the legal analysis in situations where states have chosen regulation over competition, supplanting the free functioning of markets, will diverge depending upon the identity of the defendant. If a state, its agencies, or departments are the named defendants, the broader Eleventh Amendment analysis controls and claims for damages against government entities must be dismissed on the ground of sovereign immunity. If the defendant is a private firm, the narrower State Action Doctrine, which has been crafted to balance true exercise of state sovereignty against the goal of competition, provides immunity for private defendants. As …

Balancing State Sovereignty And Competition: An Analysis Of The Impact Of Seminole Tribe On The Antitrust State Action Immunity Doctrine, Susan Beth Farmer

Journal Articles

The great impact of the Seminole Tribe v. Florida decision will likely be felt in the range of federal causes of action that have exclusive remedies in federal court. Antitrust cases are among such causes of action. In seeking to avoid antitrust liability, defendants have invoked the protections of the antitrust state action doctrine, which immunizes only that anticompetitive activity imposed and supervised by states. This immunity bars suits against state and private actors alike. After Seminole Tribe, state defendants will escape all antitrust liability, whether or not the traditional requirements of the state action doctrine have been met. …

The Misunderstood Alliance Between Sports Fans, Players, And The Antitrust Laws, Stephen F. Ross

Journal Articles

The baseball strike and the ongoing hostilities between the players' association and owners have evoked criticism and frustration among fans and others. Although the players successfully defeated the owners' most recent attempts to reduce major league competition, the threat of future imposition of competitive restraints by the owners remains. In this article Professor Stephen F. Ross argues that blanket restraints on the market for players affirmatively inhibit on-the-field competition and consequently offend the Sherman Act.

The article begins with the proposition that monopsony - price-fixing behavior by buyers', rather than sellers' cartels - implicates the Sherman Act. Restraints on competition …

Reconsidering Flood V. Kuhn, Stephen F. Ross

Journal Articles

Within the academia, two very different groups of legal scholars have devoted a great deal of attention to Flood v. Kuhn. Those specializing in sports law have either attached Flood as a ridiculous decision that improperly distinguished between baseball and other professional sports, or have praised it for waging guerrilla warfare on the idea that Section 1 of the Sherman Act should apply to intra-league arrangements by owners of the professional sports teams. Those viewing Flood through the lens of statutory interpretation perceive the decision as adhering rigidly to the principle of stare decisis; this rigidity has been …

Over Forty Years In The On-Deck Circle: Congress And The Baseball Antitrust Exemption, Ed Edmonds

Journal Articles

"Congressional discussion of baseball's antitrust exemption stretches over forty years involving a significant number of legislative initiatives. Although the exemption is a judicial aberration without justification, the 103d Congress will probably be no more successful than its predecessors in altering its long-standing existence. The three bills under consideration are not specifically crafted to resolve the problems of the changes in the commissioner's office or the lack of an expansion franchise or the relocation of an existing franchise to the Tampa-St. Petersburg area. Much of the history of Congressional concern over baseball's antitrust status suggests that broad-based attempts to completely remove …

Antitrust And Sports: Must Competition On The Field Displace Competition In The Market?, Joseph P. Bauer

Journal Articles

A casual glance at the daily newspapers would suggest that athletes and sports teams spend almost as much time squaring off in the courts as they do on the playing fields. Professional football players complain that the teams for which they play and the National Football League have conspired to impose illegal restraints on their ability to offer their services to other teams. A baseball team went to court to challenge the decision by the now-deposed Commissioner of Baseball to shift it from one division to another. College players, coaches, and universities all contend that various rules imposed by the …

The Extraterritorial Application Of Antitrust Laws: A Postscript On Hartford Fire Insurance Co. V. California, Roger P. Alford

Journal Articles

Last year in the pages of this journal I published an article comparing the United States and the European Union (E.U.) approaches to the extraterritorial application of antitrust laws. In discussing the U.S. approach, I predicted that "while the jurisdictional rule of reason has its weaknesses, it will remain a lasting fixture on the legal landscape precisely because it represents the only genuine, though inexact, attempt by courts to fashion a jurisdictional test which incorporates the legitimate sovereignty interests of foreign nations." Thus, it was with disappointment that I, along with other proponents of a jurisdictional rule of reason, received …

The Extraterritorial Application Of Antitrust Laws: The United States And European Community Approaches, Roger P. Alford

Journal Articles

This Arti­cle compares the differing approaches of the United States and the European Community as they wrestle with the question of how to regulate foreign anticompetitive activity. More specifically, this Arti­cle highlights the distinctive features of the U.S. "effects doctrine" and the European Community's "implementation approach" and ana­lyzes the differences that exist between the two systems. Only the U.S. doctrine openly provides for the consideration of international comity concerns, but both approaches have been used liberally to assert jurisdiction over foreign defendants. Part II of this Article pro­vides a background to the subject by briefly outlining the traditional bases of …

Why A Private Right Of Action Against Dumping Would Violate Gatt, Roger P. Alford

Journal Articles

Despite its other successes, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) has been criticized as being anything but successful in the antidumping arena. In particular, industries in the United States argue that GATT has failed to control dumping effectively and that alternative forms of relief are needed to counteract this unfair trade practice. The root of their concerns is the prospective nature of the existing remedy. Since antidumping duties are assessed only after a violation has been detected, dumping is essentially a risk-free, no-lose proposition, giving foreign exporters a free "first bite at the apple." The absence of monetary …

Efficiency And Image: Advertising As An Antitrust Issue, Elizabeth B. Mensch, Alan David Freeman

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

An Antitrust Analysis Of Sports League Contracts With Cable Networks, Stephen F. Ross

Journal Articles

This Article discusses the proper antitrust treatment of package sales to cable. Part I considers whether the antitrust laws apply at all to such sales; it concludes that section one of the Sherman Act does apply and that neither the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 not baseball's historic exemption from the antitrust laws prevents antitrust scrutiny of these contracts. Part II explains why cable package sales should be analyzed under a rule of reason test focused on the effect of a sale on fan viewership. Finally, Part III responds to several possible objections to the rule of reason standard proposed …

Reaganist Realism Comes To Detriot, Stephen F. Ross

Journal Articles

Part I of this article discusses Detroit Newspapers and explains how in deferring to the Attorney General's interpretation of the Newspaper Preservation Act, Judge Silberman disregarded every applicable technique of statutory interpretation typically used to resolve the issue. Indeed, each of these techniques suggests that Attorney General Meese's interpretation of the Act was incorrect. This part of the article also demonstrates why deference to Meese was particularly inappropriate in light of the generally accepted justifications for judicial deference to administrative interpretations of statutes.

Part II explains that Detroit Newspapers is one of several opinions by conservative Reagan judicial appointees that …

Monopoly Sports Leagues, Stephen F. Ross

Journal Articles

This Article argues that the government should break up both Major League Baseball and the NFL to provide for competing economic entities in each sport. Part I details the harm monopoly sports leagues cause in several different markets and explains why a competitive league structure can correct such harms. Part II discusses why regulatory solutions are poor substitutes for competition as a means of redressing these harms. Part III explains why neither baseball nor football is a "natural monopoly" and argues that no persuasive evidence suggests that rival leagues cannot exist in those sports. Part IV examines how the antitrust …

Competition At The Teller's Window?: Altered Antitrust Standards For Banks And Other Financial Institutions, Joseph P. Bauer, Earl W. Kintner

Journal Articles

Congressional and judicial attitudes towards the banking industry have reflected two, sometimes conflicting, goals-the maintenance of the solvency of financial institutions to protect the interests of depositors, other creditors and the economy at large; and the promotion of competition among these institutions and in the economy. The advancement of these goals has been reflected in the application of the antitrust laws to the industry.

For the most part, the Sherman and Clayton Acts apply with the same force and scope to financial institutions as to other industries. In some cases, however, the goal of institutional protection is favored, and the …

Developments In Section Two Of The Sherman Act, Joseph P. Bauer

Journal Articles

The issues raised in this Symposium are of great interest and timeliness. During the 1940s and 1950s, the Supreme Court explored the role of Section 2 of the Sherman Act as an essential element in the antitrust regime. As was true with antitrust generally, courts expanded the reach of Section 2, frequently concluding that the complained-of conduct constituted unlawful monopolization or attempts to monopolize, and approving injunctions forbidding the continuation of exclusionary or predatory practices and orders leading to the breakup of the monopoly itself. However, after the Grinnell decision in 1966, and the Otter Tail case almost a decade …

Application Of The Antitrust Laws To The Activities Of Insurance Companies: Heavier Risks, Expanded Coverage, And Greater Liability, Joseph Bauer, Earl W. Kintner, Michael J. Allen

Journal Articles

Since 1945 Congress has exempted certain activities of insurance companies from federal antitrust scrutiny. This exemption, provided by the McCarran-Ferguson Act, is not unqualified; it only applies to insurance company activities that constitute the "business of insurance" and that already are regulated under state law. Moreover, the exemption does not apply to activities that involve boycotts, coercion, or intimidation. The purpose of this exemption was to preserve the long tradition of state regulation of insurance, while providing federal remedies for coercive anticompetitive activities. The authors examine recent Supreme Court interpretations of the Act in light of this legislative policy and …

A Federal Law Of Unfair Competition: What Should Be The Reach Of Section 43(A) Of The Lanham Act?, Joseph P. Bauer

Journal Articles

Statutes, like human beings, may experience a mid-life crisis. One notable illustration of this phenomenon is Section 43(a) of the Lanham Act of 1946. This provision, offering federal protection to businesses against many forms of unfair competition engaged in by their rivals, has been the subject of varied and inconsistent judicial treatment. Just as with a growing child, the first eight years of this statute's existence were characterized by few lasting achievements.

Then a landmark decision in 1954 recognized and liberated Section 43(a)'s potential. The past two decades have seen an explosion in the kinds of actions brought under this …

Antitrust Exemptions For Private Requests For Governmental Action: A Critical Analysis Of The Noerr-Pennington Doctrine, Earl W. Kintner, Joseph P. Bauer

Journal Articles

Section 1 of the Sherman Act makes it unlawful for persons to engage in a combination or conspiracy, in restraint of trade. A variety of undertakings by persons seeking legislative action, judicial relief, administrative agency activity, or action by the executive branch of government may result in governmental steps which restrain competitors or diminish competition. Indeed, the very act of seeking governmental intervention, even if unsuccessful, may have adverse competitive effects. Similarly, monopolization or attempts to monopolize, proscribed by Section 2 of the Sherman Act, might actually be advanced by governmental activities or by an individual merely seeking governmental assistance. …

A Simplified Approach To Tying Arrangements: A Legal And Economic Analysis, Joseph P. Bauer

Journal Articles

Few types of antitrust conduct have received as much treatment from the Supreme Court as tying arrangements. This practice, which is unlawful per se when certain prerequisites are met, may be defined as an agreement by a party to sell one product [the tying product] but only on the condition that the buyer also purchases different (or tied) product, or at least agrees that he will not purchase that product from any other supplier. Notwithstanding this extensive Supreme Court attention, there is as much heat as light in this area. The doctrine that has developed is often unpredictable and frequently …

Per Se Illegality Of Concerted Refusals To Deal: A Rule Ripe For Reexamination, Joseph P. Bauer

Journal Articles

Section 1 of the Sherman Act proscribes [e]very contract, combination . . . or conspiracy, in restraint of trade. Early Supreme Court cases interpreting this provision held that it required a determination by the trier of fact of the reasonableness of the challenged conduct in each case — an approach which came to be known as the rule of reason. In subsequent cases, however, the Court has held that certain conduct is unreasonable per se. That is, once a court has determined that such conduct has taken place, it is foreclosed from undertaking an inquiry into the reasonableness of that …

Emerging Issues With Respect To Merger Enforcement Standards, Daniel F. Kolb, Edward W. Large, David Boies, Thomas Dieterich, Malcolm R. Pfunder, Joseph P. Bauer

Journal Articles

I think we are particularly fortunate in the panelists who have assembled for this discussion. And I want to introduce each of them in a moment. Let me first just take a brief bit of time to describe for you what we hope to do today, which is to focus on what we think, within the general scope of merger standards, is the most important issue that we are facing at this time.

We think the key issue is the new legislation that has been proposed in Congress, which is aimed squarely at putting a limit on the size of …

Challenging Conglomerate Mergers Under Section 7 Of The Clayton Act: Today's Law And Tomorrow's Legislation, Joseph P. Bauer

Journal Articles

Federal antitrust enforcement has undergone a radical transformation in the past decade. The change in enforcement patterns has been most noticeable in the area of merger law. The magnitude of this shift, the confusion that has characterized the case law accompanying it, and the increasing prominence of conglomerate mergers as a means to corporate expansion form the basis for this article. The primary source for regulation of mergers under the antitrust laws is section 7 of the Clayton Act, which proscribes those corporate acquisitions “where in any line of commerce in any section of the country, the effect of such …

Professional Activities And The Antitrust Laws, Joseph P. Bauer

Journal Articles

Few subjects in international law raise such incorrigible conflicts of interest as the exercise of extraterritorial jurisdiction in the antitrust context. As one commentator asked with respect to a U.S. court's assertion of jurisdiction over British defendants, "[h]ow could American law, how could an American judgment applying American law possibly vary the rights and obligations created by an English contract to be performed outside the United States?" Indeed, international law is based on the notion that a state occupies a definite territory, within which it normally exercises exclusive jurisdiction.

Yet this traditional doctrine of "territorial jurisdiction" has slowly given way …