Law Commons^™

Trade Associations, Information Exchange, And Cartels, Spencer Weber Waller

Faculty Publications & Other Works

Trade associations can play a procompetitive role in an economy but, as an association of actual and potential competitors, can also raise important competition law issues that must be addressed carefully by legal counsel. This Issue Paper presents a hypothetical problem that illustrates many of the issues that counsel can confront in representing a trade association, its members, or company executives. The Issue Paper raises many of the issues from a United States' perspective with occasional comparative examples from other jurisdictions. Carefully consider how your jurisdiction would, and should, address these all too real issues. In thinking about the …

Cartel Ringmaster Or Competition Creator? The Ebooks Case Against Apple (2013), Jonathan Baker

Contributions to Books

In 2013, a federal district court found that Apple had orchestrated a cartel agreement involving it and five major book publishers three years earlier, when Apple opened the iBookstore in conjunction with the introduction of its iPad tablet computer. According to the court, Apple organized collective action by the publishers to take away ebook pricing authority from Amazon, an aggressive discounter, and to raise the retail prices of ebooks.

This chapter describes the case from an economic point of view. It examines the competing views of the government and Apple over the competitive impact of various provisions in the iBookstore’s …