Law Commons^™

Comments To The U.S. Sentencing Commission Concerning Antitrust Fines, Robert H. Lande

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This Comment was submitted to the US Sentencing Commission on behalf of the American Antitrust Institute. It makes three important points, all of which concern the US Sentencing Commission's Antitrust Guidelines' cartel overcharge presumption.

First, the evidence demonstrates there currently is significant underdeterrence of price fixing and other anticompetitive forms of collusion. Second, the general approach to calculating cartel fines embodied in the US Sentencing Commission Guidelines, under which the enforcers and ultimately the courts calculate antitrust fines based upon a very specific presumed overcharge, is sound and in the public interest. Third, the 10% cartel overcharge presumption in the …

Should Section 5 Guidelines Focus On Economic Efficiency Or Consumer Choice?, Robert H. Lande

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FTC Commissioner Joshua Wright is right that it would be desirable for the Commission to issue Section 5 antitrust guidelines. This article will demonstrate, however, that the best way to formulate Section 5 guidelines is to focus them on the goal of protecting consumer choice, rather than to embrace Commissioner Wright's proposal to neuter the FTC Act by confining it in an economic efficiency straitjacket. Only if Section 5 guidelines were formulated appropriately would they improve consumer welfare during the Commission's second century.