Antitrust and Trade Regulation Commons^™

Eec Antitrust: Community Adoption Of The Parker Doctrine, Gilbert P. Verbit

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Once it concluded that the Sherman Act did not apply to the states, the United States Supreme Court apparently found it necessary to hold that the Act did not reach agents of the state or those whose action was compelled by the state. The state action defense to an antitrust proceeding was thus created. In Cantor, at least four Justices decided they did not like the results of this experiment, and they virtually put an end to the state action defense. The Court of Justice of the European Communities was not similarly pressured to find a state action defense to …