Law Commons^™

The Factor/Element Distinction In Antitrust Litigation, Christopher R. Leslie

William & Mary Law Review

Most price-fixing litigation turns on whether the plaintiffs can present sufficient circumstantial evidence from which a reasonable jury could infer that the defendants did, in fact, conspire to raise prices. This generally entails the proffering of plus factors, a type of evidence that suggests parallel conduct by the defendants was the product of collusion, not independent decisions. As their name suggests, plus factors are just that—factors. Proving a collection of factors may be necessary for a plaintiff’s case, but no individual factor is ever required. If it were, it wouldn’t be a factor; it would be an element.

Several federal …

The Probative Synergy Of Plus Factors In Price-Fixing Litigation, Christopher R. Leslie

Northwestern University Law Review

Private plaintiffs alleging that defendants conspired to fix prices in violation of antitrust law must usually prove their claims through circumstantial evidence, generally in the form of “plus factors”—evidence indicating that the defendants’ parallel conduct was caused by collusion, not by independent decision-making. Supreme Court precedent requires fact finders to examine antitrust plaintiffs’ evidence holistically. With increasing frequency, however, federal courts in price-fixing cases improperly isolate each piece of circumstantial evidence presented by the plaintiff and then deprive it of all probative value because that single piece of evidence is insufficient, standing alone, to prove a price-fixing conspiracy. As a …

Uber's Efficiencies: A Modest Proposal For Limiting Use Of Antitrust's Per Se Rule, Kathleen Guilfoyle

University of Colorado Law Review

In antitrust law, the per se rule against horizontal price-fixing seems set in stone. Over time, however, antitrust enforcers and courts have declined to use this rule and instead have used the rule of reason. This change stems directly from the recognition that the per se rule's blunt application may end up harming consumers in some contexts. Using Uber as an example of a consumer-friendly, efficiencyenhancing business model, this Comment argues that using the per se rule to analyze horizontal arrangements like Uber's sacrifices consumer welfare. Instead, courts should use the rule of reason and engage in cost-benefit analysis where …

How Meyer V. Uber Could Demonstrate That Uber And The Sharing Economy Fit Into Antitrust Law, Nicholas Andrew Passaro

Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review

Recently, Uber driver (and former Uber CEO) Travis Kalanick has been sued under antitrust laws. The plaintiffs argue that Mr. Kalanick and the other Uber drivers have engaged in a price fixing arrangement that violates §1 of the Sherman Act. The case, Meyer v. Uber (originally Meyer v. Kalanick), is still being litigated. This Comment will analyze each side’s potential arguments and will ultimately conclude that the court should find Uber drivers not guilty of a Sherman Act violation. This determination will be based on: the merits of the various arguments, how such a holding would fit within the …

Licensing Of Intellectual Property Rights, Mark Joelson

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

What's So Great About Nothing? The Gnu General Public License And The Zero-Price-Fixing Problem, Heidi S. Bond

Michigan Law Review

In 1991, Linus Torvalds released the first version of the Linux operating system. Like many other beneficiaries of the subsequent dot-com boom, Torvalds worked on a limited budget. Clad in a bathrobe, clattering away on a computer purchased on credit, subsisting on a diet of pretzels and dry pasta, hiding in a tiny room that was outfitted with thick black shades designed to block out Finland's summer sun, Torvalds programmed Linux. Like some other beneficiaries of the subsequent dot-com boom, Torvalds created a product that is now used by millions. He owns stock options worth seven figures. Computer industry giants, …

Narrower Is Better - The Third Circuit's Latest Word On Conscious Parallelism And The Problem Of Plus Factors: In Re Flat Glass, Joseph Skocilich

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.

Albrecht After Arco: Maximum Resale Price Fixing Moves Toward The Rule Of Reason, Roger D. Blair, Gordon L. Lang

Vanderbilt Law Review

For some time, both economic and legal commentators have recognized the economic irrationality of the Supreme Court's ruling in Albrecht v. Herald Co. which prohibited the imposition of maximum resale prices by a supplier on its resellers. Ordinarily, unwise decisions receive critical reviews and eventually lose their force as they are over-ruled explicitly or by implication in subsequent decisions. In order for this evolution to occur, however, the Court must be presented with an opportunity to alter its earlier rulings. Recently, the Supreme Court had just such an opportunity to revisit the Albrecht rule in Atlantic Richfield Co. v. USA …

Rent Control Price Fixing: Another Look At The Emperor's New Clothes, Robert N. Markle

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Tying Arrangements And Class Actions, Herbert Hovenkamp

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Article does not attempt to identify socially harmful tying arrangements." Rather, it draws upon the vast literature and case law of tying arrangements to suggest possible solutions to a perplexing problem in the law of antitrust class actions: under what circumstances do common questions predominate over individual questions in tying arrangement cases and thereby justify class action treatment? Courts today agree generally that although the amount of damages may vary considerably from one prospective class member to another, certification of a class action requires that the fact of injury be demonstrable by proof common to all members of a …

Pennsylvania Antitrust Law: What Is The Commonwealth's Policy On Competition, Stephanie G. Spaulding

Duquesne Law Review

Because there is no state antitrust statute in Pennsylvania, it is difficult to ascertain the Commonwealth's policy on restrictive trade practices. The author of this comment looks first to Pennsylvania common law, then to selected Pennsylvania statutes, to determine if there is a clearly enunciated policy on competition. She concludes that Pennsylvania cases and legislation provide little help to the lawyer or business person seeking to determine what is encouraged and what is proscribed.

Antitrust-Limitation Of Actions-Clayton Act Statute Of Limitations Tolled On Treble Damage Suits Against Non-Government Defendant Co-Conspirators-- Michigan V. Morton Salt Co., Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiffs, several states and smaller governmental units, filed related antitrust treble damage claims against ten rock salt companies that had allegedly conspired to fix prices. These private actions were instituted subsequent to civil and criminal antitrust proceedings brought by the federal government in which four of the ten companies had been named as defendants and five designated as co-conspirators but not prosecuted. Section 5(b) of the Clayton Act provides that when such actions are brought by the government, "the running of the statute of limitations in respect of every private right of action arising under said laws and based in …

Hawley: The New Deal And The Monopoly Problem, Arthur D. Austin

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The New Deal and the Monopoly Problem By E. W. Hawley

The Effect Of White Motor Co. On Exclusive Selling Arrangements, Jack R. Hlustik

Vanderbilt Law Review

At present, the status of exclusive selling arrangements with territorial and/or customer limitations is unsettled. Since these arrangements are not illegal per se, a full trial is necessary to adjudge their validity. Future courts, enlightened by the arguments of lawyers, the analyses of commentators, and the testimony of numerous expert witnesses, will be in a better position to formulate policies and establish guidelines in this area. Legislative proposals may be submitted to Congress to eliminate this uncertainty. Hasty legislation in this area would be unwise, however, for legislative experience in this area, like judicial experience, is limited.

British Antitrust In Action, Michael Conant

Michigan Law Review

The Restrictive Trade Practices Act of 1956 was the first positive anti-monopoly statute in the United Kingdom since the Statute of Monopolies in 1623. Now that the statute has been in effect four years there are sufficient decisions and consent orders to make possible a report on its operation. Since most American readers are unfamiliar with the legal and economic background of the Restrictive Trade Practices Act, the prior common law in this area and the 1948 monopolies investigation statute will be summarized first. This summary is followed by an analysis of the structure of the 1956 Act, of the …

Antitrust Law - Suggested Resale Price Policy - Limitations Of Use Of The Colgate Doctrine, Stanley Zax

Michigan Law Review

The United States Government brought a civil action charging that Parke, Davis & Co., a large pharmaceutical manufacturer, violated sections 1 and 3 of the Sherman Act by combining and conspiring with wholesalers and/or retailers to maintain the resale price of its products. Parke Davis, in marketing its products through both wholesale and retail channels of distribution, announced in its catalogues a suggested policy of resale prices at the wholesale and retail levels. In an effort to promote adherence to this policy, Parke Davis representatives visited wholesalers and retailers separately in non-fair trade areas. The wholesalers were informed that Parke …

Bid Depositories, George H. Schueller

Michigan Law Review

The decision by the United States District Court for the Southern District of California in the civil antitrust case of United States v. Bakersfield Associated Plumbing Contractors, Inc. brought in its wake considerable renewed interest, discussion, and activities concerning "bid depositories." This is apparent from the trade press and from inquiries reaching the Antitrust Division, including a number of requests for clearance of bid depository plans through so-called "railroad release" procedures. Even more recently, institution of the civil and criminal antitrust cases of United States v. Arizona Masonry and Plastering Contractors' Association provided further stimulation. The term "renewed" interest and …

Regulation Of Business - Refusals To Deal - Use To Effectuate Resale Price Maintenance, Raymond J. Dittrich, Jr. S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

This comment will examine the legal questions arising from a manufacturer's exercise of his right to maintain resale prices by refusing to deal with price cutters in an attempt to determine whether this exists only as an abstract right, or whether it can be translated into legally effective business practices.

Delivered Prices: Doing Business Under The Present Law, Corwin D. Edwards

Michigan Law Review

What is involved in doing business under the present law concerning delivered prices? Since the ease or difficulty of doing business in accord with the law depends upon what the law permits and prohibits, to answer this question requires an assumption about what the law is. I shall assume that the scope of legally permissible action is that envisaged in the statement which the Federal Trade Commission issued to its staff and released to the public last October 12. This statement says, in effect, that businessmen are not required to sell f.o.b. mill or to adopt any particular form of …

Some Problems In The Enforcement Of The Antitrust Laws, Wendell Berge

Michigan Law Review

There has been much discussion through the years about the evils of monopoly, monopolistic practices, and unreasonable restraints of trade. We have always paid lip service to the ideal of free competition. But we have done little in this country to cope with these evils. We have done little to make our competitive ideal effective.

Constitutional Law-Trade Regulation-Fair Trade Act

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, owner of the exclusive right to sell certain popular trade-marked cosmetics in California, entered into a large number of contracts with wholesalers and retailers of that state, fixing the price at which those branded articles were to resell. Thereafter, pursuant to the provisions of the state Fair Trade Act, he brought suit to enjoin defendant, a retail druggist who had refused to make any such agreements and who, from sources unknown, had acquired such trade-marked articles, from reselling at less than the price stipulated in the contracts with others. A demurrer to the complaint was sustained, but on appeal …

Federal Anti-Trust Law And The National Industrial Recovery Act, Howard E. Wahrenbrock

Michigan Law Review

The economic struggle for existence - the competitive system - which has been principally depended upon to equate the production and consumption of economic goods, is not self-sustaining. Extreme forms of that struggle - engrossing, forestalling, regrating, contracts in restraint of trade, monopoly, unfair competition, to mention some forms at the higher stages of legal development - have had to be restrained by law. Their restriction has been called for to protect the poor and economically weak from oppression by the rich and economically powerful; under a system of complete laissez faire, competition would bring about the elimination of the …

Trade Restraints -- Anti-Trust Laws -- Common Selling Agency

Michigan Law Review

Many students of the decisions under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act have voiced the opinion that the Supreme Court has been using one measuring stick to determine the legality of a combination of competing industrial units which takes the form of a merger or consolidation with highly centralized management and control of all activities, and quite a different stick for judging a combination formed for the purpose of stabilizing prices and production through cooperation in one form or another between competing units which retain their independence so far as management and control of production and financing are concerned. Thus in the …

Trade Restraints - Resale Price Maintenance

Michigan Law Review

Petition to review an order of the Federal Trade Commission requiring the petitioner to cease and desist certain trade methods found to be unfair. Held, that while the petitioner had a right to refuse to sell goods to those who did not sell them at the suggested resale prices, with the further right to state to them its reasons for so doing, the petitioner was rightly ordered to desist from requiring dealers, placing orders, to give assurance that they would be governed by the suggested resale prices as a condition precedent to the acceptance of the orders. Shakespeare Co. …