Law Commons^™

The Duality Of Provider And Payer In The Current Healthcare Landscape And Related Antitrust Implications, Julia Kapchinskiy

San Diego Law Review

Health care landscape has changed with the introduction of the ACA and will keep changing due to the proposed repeal. The only constant is the desire of health plans and providers to maximize profits and minimize costs, which is attainable through consolidation. This Comment advocates a revision of the existing antitrust guidelines that would (1) recognize unique nature of health care market, (2) be independent from the current or proposed legislation to the maximum possible extent, and (3) reflect the insurer-provider duality, which heavily influences the quality and accessibility of the healthcare for the consumer.

State-Action Immunity And Section 5 Of The Ftc Act, Daniel A. Crane, Adam Hester

Michigan Law Review

The state-action immunity doctrine of Parker v. Brown immunizes anticompetitive state regulations from preemption by federal antitrust law so long as the state takes conspicuous ownership of its anticompetitive policy. In its 1943 Parker decision, the Supreme Court justified this doctrine, observing that no evidence of a congressional will to preempt state law appears in the Sherman Act’s legislative history or context. In addition, commentators generally assume that the New Deal court was anxious to avoid re-entangling the federal judiciary in Lochner-style substantive due process analysis. The Supreme Court has observed, without deciding, that the Federal Trade Commission might …

Patent Privateers And Antitrust Fears, Matthew Sipe

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

Patent trolls are categorically demonized as threatening American innovation and industry. But whether they are a threat that antitrust law is equipped to deal with is a complex question that depends on the particular type of patent troll and activities they engage in. This Article looks specifically at privateer patent trolls: entities that acquire their patents from operating entities and assert them against other industry members. In the particular context of privateering, antitrust law is almost certainly not the proper legal solution. Privateering does raise significant issues: circumventing litigation constraints, evading licensing obligations, and raising the cost and frequency of …

Advertising Of Food And Drugs: Concealing A Truth, Hinting A Lie, Barry S. Donner

Akron Law Review

THE FOCUS OF THIS COMMENT is on recent advertisements promoting foods and drugs. Listed below are some representative ads, either recently published in magazines, or broadcast on radio or television. The question is whether they represent practices which, under the Federal Trade Commission Act, are prohibited, or should be prohibited.

The Dean Rusk Award 1983-1984: The Export Trading Company Act Of 1982: Theory And Application, Mark Grambergs

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

The Elephant In The Courtroom: Litigating The Premerger Fix In Arch Coal And Beyond, Katherine A. Ambrogi

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Anticompetitive Effect Of Passive Investment, David Gilo

Michigan Law Review

There are many cases in which a firm passively invests in its competitor. For example, Microsoft passively invested in $150 million worth of the nonvoting stock of Apple, its historic rival in the operating systems market. Also, in November 1998, Northwest Airlines, the nation's fourth-largest airline, purchased 14% of the common stock of Continental Airlines Inc., the nation's fifth-largest (and fastest growing) airline. Northwest competes with Continental on seven routes, serving 3.6 million passengers per year. In another example, TCI, the nation's largest cable operator, became a passive investor with a 9% stake (which can be increased, under the terms …

Antitrust Beyond Competition: Market Failures, Total Welfare, And The Challenge Of Intramarket Second-Best Tradeoffs, Peter J. Hammer

Michigan Law Review

Should antitrust law ever sanction the accumulation of market power or permit other restraints of trade if such conduct would increase social welfare? This is the challenge raised by intramarket second- best tradeoffs. The lesson of second-best analysis is that one market failure can sometimes counteract the effects of another market failure. In the presence of multiple market failures, it is conceivable that mergers or other restraints traditionally viewed as anticompetitive may be welfare-enhancing. A social planner, given the mandate of maximizing total welfare, would permit such restraints. Could an antitrust judge come to the same result under a defensible …

Antitrust: Systemcare, Inc. V. Wang Laboratories Corp.: Evaluating Unilateral Behavior In The Tenth Circuit, Michael R. Barnett

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Federal Trade Commission's Evolving Deception Policy, Jack E. Karns

University of Richmond Law Review

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has regulated competitive business activities since its inception in 1915. Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act (FTCA) empowers the Commission to enjoin certain unfair -and deceptive business practices. As is the case with other regulatory statutes, Congress chose not to define certain terms in the FTCA, such as "deceptive," leaving this task to the FTC and the federal courts. The result has been a steady flow of federal case law clarifying the definition of a deceptive business act or practice.

The Federal Trade Commission, Injunctive Relief, And Allegedly Anticompetitive Mergers: Preliminary Relief Under The Federal Trade Commission Act, David M. Stryker

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Immunity Of Local Governments And Their Officials From Antitrust Claims After City Of Boulder, J. Robert Brame Iii, Howard Feller

University of Richmond Law Review

On January 13, 1982, the United States Supreme Court rendered an opinion against the City of Boulder, Colorado, which expanded the potential liability of local governmental entities and their officials to claims under the federal antitrust laws. The Supreme Court essentially held that a municipality cannot obtain immunity from antitrust claims unless it satisfies a stringent test. Due to the broad language of the opinion, virtually every activity in which a local governmental entity engages, including the traditional activities of zoning, licensing, franchising, purchasing and operating public utilities, has become subject to antitrust challenges that may require a trial on …

Decision Theory And Antitrust: Quantitative Evaluation For Efficient Enforcement, Ira Horowitz

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Franchisor's Dilemma: Justifying Tying Arrangements In Antitrust Suits., Larry R. Patton

St. Mary's Law Journal

Tying Arrangements within the Franchise market suppress competition by denying competitors free access to the market for a tied product. A tie-in or tied product is an item, distinguishable from the franchise itself, forced upon a franchise, to secure the license. The two defenses used in validating a tied product are: (1) that the tying product in “good will” serves a satisfactory purpose in conjunction with the tied product, and (2) the tied protect serves to protect the quality of the trademarked product. This study examines case law and how the application of the Sherman and Clayton Anti-Trust Acts in …

A Survey Of The Antitrust Law Of Exclusive Agreements, John H. Shenefield

University of Richmond Law Review

Within the world of commerce, long-term supply contracts are common. Manufacturers seek to establish dependable customers and consumers hope for the security of a reliable supply. Short of vertical integration no commercial arrangement accomplishes these ends more efficiently than the several varieties of exclusive arrangements.

The Gasoline Price Wars: A Case Study Of The Shortcomings Of The Mandatory Processes

Indiana Law Journal

Symposium on the Federal Trade Commission: A Program of Enforcement

Interstate Dissemination Of Advertising: Jurisdiction Which Must Be Earned

Indiana Law Journal

Symposium on the Federal Trade Commission: A Program of Enforcement

Guides To Harmonizing Section 5 Of The Federal Trade Commission Act With The Sherman And Clayton Acts, S. Chesterfield Oppenheim

Michigan Law Review

This topic is a constellation of antitrust highlights. Within the past five years the Federal Trade Commission has ventured into borderlands of its claim of jurisdiction under section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act in testing the scope of section 5 itself and its relation to the Commission's jurisdiction under the Sherman and Clayton Acts.

Federal Control In The Food And Drug Industries, Thomas W. Christopher

Vanderbilt Law Review

If the attention or lack of attention law reviews give to a subject is indicative of the amount of governmental control therein, then one would conclude that there is little federal regulation in the food and drug fields. The fact is, however, that there are more than 1,200 pages of federal statutes and administrative regulations affecting the food and drug industries, and no industry is more tightly controlled. The antitrust, securities, and labor statutes, for example, are, if anything, less stringent.

In the main, the approach of food and drug regulation is from a different point of view than that …

Administrative Law-Federal Trade Commission-Constitutional And Statutory Authority To Order Additional Compliance Reports, Charles Myneder S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Proceeding under section 5 of its organic act, the Federal Trade Commission issued an order requiring defendants to cease and desist from engaging in certain trade practices. The court of appeals, in its decree affirming the order, directed compliance reports to be filed with the commission within a specified time, reserving jurisdiction to enter further orders. Four years after the compliance reports were filed, the commission, on its own motion, ordered additional reports to show continued compliance. Defendants refused to report, challenging the authority of the commission to issue the order. The district court dismissed suit by the commission for …

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 …

Federal Trade Commission - False And Misleading Advertising

Michigan Law Review

The law provided neither practical remedies nor suitable means of preventing false and misleading advertising before the passage of the Federal Trade Commission Act in 1914. The doctrine of caveat emptor had long prevented the effectual protection of misled customers and of competitors consequently injured. True, competitors could enjoin or recover damages-for injury by misleading advertising which took the form of common law "unfair competition." The courts had found no great difficulty in extending established common law principles to make unlawful such obvious violations of the proprietary rights of particular competitors as "simulation" and "disparagement." Although there is little question …