Law Commons^™

Textualism As An Ally Of Antitrust Enforcement: Examples From Merger And Monopolization Law, Robert H. Lande

Utah Law Review

This Article will first briefly present an overview of the textualist method of statutory interpretation. It will then briefly engage in a textualist analysis of important portions of two antitrust statutes: Section 2 of the Sherman Act and Section 7 of the Clayton Act. At least in these areas, textualist analysis should, if anything, help re-invigorate antitrust enforcement.

Reviving Antitrust Enforcement In The Airline Industry, Jonathan Edelman

Michigan Law Review

The Department of Transportation (DOT) has broad but oft overlooked power to address antitrust issues among airlines through section 411 of the Federal Aviation Act. However, the DOT’s unwillingness to enforce antitrust more aggressively may be translating into higher fares and fees for airline travelers.

More aggressive antitrust enforcement is urgently needed. Recent research has revealed a widespread practice of common ownership in the airline industry, whereby investment firms own large portions of rival airline companies. Although this practice leads to higher prices and reduced competition, antitrust regulators, from the DOT to the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade …

Privity Vs. Proximity: The Supreme Court’S Erroneous Reading Of The Illinois Brick Doctrine In Apple Inc. V. Pepper, Suzin A. Win

Golden Gate University Law Review

The rapid development of the digital marketplace led the United States Supreme Court to revisit the forty-two year old antitrust precedent set in Illinois Brick Co. v. Illinois. In Illinois Brick, the Supreme Court decided that under Section 4 of the Clayton Act, direct purchasers have standing to sue for treble damages due to unfair business practices, while indirect purchasers do not. Over four decades later, in Apple Inc. v. Pepper, the Court reevaluated this doctrine. This time, the Court had to determine which party received the “direct purchaser” status in a situation where plaintiffs bought apps from …

Farmer Cooperatives "Take Cover": The Capper-Volstead Exemption Is Under Siege, Donald M. Barnes, Jay L. Levine

Arkansas Law Review

"When tillage begins, other arts follow. The farmers, therefore, are the founders of human civilization." There can be little dispute that food production is of vital interest to any nation’s security and economy. For this reason, the United States Congress, like many other legislatures around the world, has accorded special treatment to the agricultural industry, and particularly to farmers. One example of this special treatment is the Capper-Volstead Act, which provides farmers with immunity from antitrust liability for joint conduct undertaken by and through an “association” of producers.

The Case For Preemptive Oligopoly Regulation, Jeffrey D. Manns

Indiana Law Journal

One of the few things former President Donald Trump and leading Democrats appear to agree on is the need to subject Big Technology (“Big Tech”) firms to antitrust scrutiny. But unsurprisingly they disagree about how to address the problem. Senator Elizabeth Warren and many other leading Democrats have called for breaking up large technology firms, such as Google, Amazon, and Facebook, in a revival of the trust-busting progressive era of the early twentieth century. In contrast, the Trump administration triggered more traditional antitrust monopoly review of potential anticompetitive activities of a number of leading technology firms, which is more likely …

Anticompetitive Mergers In Labor Markets, Ioana Marinescu, Herbert J. Hovenkamp

Indiana Law Journal

Mergers of competitors are conventionally challenged under the federal antitrust laws when they threaten to lessen competition in some product or service market in which the merging firms sell. In many of these cases the threat is that in concentrated markets—those with only a few sellers—the merger increases the likelihood of collusion or collusion-like behavior. The result will be that the post-merger firm will reduce the volume of sales in the affected market and prices will rise.

Mergers can also injure competition in markets in which the firms purchase, however. Although that principle is widely recognized, very few litigated cases …

Healthcare Mergers And Acquisitions In An Era Of Consolidation: A Review And A Call For Agency Collaboration In Antitrust Enforcement, Anna Molinari

Pepperdine Law Review

Healthcare companies are consolidating at an alarming rate. From hospitals, to providers’ offices, to insurance companies, there are increasingly fewer consumer choices and more monopolies, which calls for heightened antitrust enforcement. Interestingly, antitrust enforcement authority in the healthcare industry is shared between the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which presides over hospital and provider mergers, and the Department of Justice (DOJ), which presides over health insurance mergers. Although the FTC has challenged many hospital and provider mergers, the DOJ has only challenged six health insurance mergers. Furthermore, last year, the DOJ ultimately approved all health insurance mergers. In 2017, in United …

The Foreign Trade Antitrust Improvements Act: Do We Really Want To Return To American Banana?, Joseph P. Bauer

Maine Law Review

It keeps getting worse and worse. Over the past three and a half decades, the Supreme Court has made countless changes to substantive antitrust doctrine, making successful assertion of an antitrust claim more and more difficult. We have known for at least a century—at least since the Standard Oil decision—that the language in section 1 of the Sherman Act, providing that “every contract, combination . . . , or conspiracy, in restraint of trade . . . , is declared to be illegal” is not to be read literally. “Every” does not mean “every.” It means only “some”—generally, only those …

Equitable Relief For Private Rico Plaintiffs: Using Donziger To Remedy Courthouse Corruption, Anna Hanke

Journal of Law and Policy

In Chevron Corp. v. Steven Donziger, the Southern District of New York granted Chevron an injunction against Donziger under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, preventing the enforcement of an Ecuadorean judgment against it in the United States. This Note discusses the circuit court split on whether injunctive relief may be granted in a civil RICO suit, arguing that injunctive relief is an available remedy within the statute’s plain meaning, legislative intent, and evolving jurisprudence of civil RICO. The Note applies the Donziger interpretation of RICO to a case of a similarly corrupted judgment, Caperton v. A.T. Massey …

Equitable Relief For Private Rico Plaintiffs: Using Donziger To Remedy Courthouse Corruption, Anna Hanke

Journal of Law and Policy

In Chevron Corp. v. Steven Donziger, the Southern District of New York granted Chevron an injunction against Donziger under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, preventing the enforcement of an Ecuadorean judgment against it in the United States. This Note discusses the circuit court split on whether injunctive relief may be granted in a civil RICO suit, arguing that injunctive relief is an available remedy within the statute’s plain meaning, legislative intent, and evolving jurisprudence of civil RICO. The Note applies the Donziger interpretation of RICO to a case of a similarly corrupted judgment, Caperton v. A.T. Massey …

Astroturf Campaigns: Transparency In Telecom Merger Review, Victoria Peng

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Large telecommunications companies looking to merge spend millions of dollars in their lobbying efforts to clear regulatory hurdles and obtain approval for their proposed mergers. Corporations such as AT&T, Comcast, and Time Warner use public participation processes as vehicles to influence regulatory decision-making. In the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) merger review context, the notice- and-comment process and public hearings have become fertile breeding grounds for hidden corporate influence. Corporations spend millions on corporate social responsibility programs and call upon nonprofit organizations that receive their largesse to represent their corporate interests as grassroots interests when the FCC seeks public comment. This …

The New Road To Serfdom: The Curse Of Bigness And The Failure Of Antitrust, Carl T. Bogus

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article argues for a paradigm shift in modern antitrust policy. Rather than being concerned exclusively with consumer welfare, antitrust law should also be concerned with consolidated corporate power. Regulators and courts should consider the social and political, as well as the economic, consequences of corporate mergers. The vision that antitrust must be a key tool for limiting consolidated corporate power has a venerable legacy, extending back to the origins of antitrust law in early seventeenth century England, running throughout American history, and influencing the enactment of U.S. antitrust laws. However, the Chicago School’s view that antitrust law should be …

Standing In The Way Of The Ftaia: Exceptional Applications Of Illinois Brick, Jennifer Fischell

Michigan Law Review

In 1982, Congress enacted the Foreign Antitrust Trade Improvements Act (FTAIA) to resolve uncertainties about the international reach and effect of U.S. antitrust laws. Unfortunately, the FTAIA has provided more questions than answers. It has been ten years since the Supreme Court most recently interpreted the FTAIA, and crucial questions and circuit splits abound. One of these questions is how to understand the convergence of the direct purchaser rule (frequently referred to as the Illinois Brick doctrine) and the FTAIA. Under the direct purchaser rule, only those who purchase directly from antitrust violators are typically permitted to sue under section …

The Liability Of Foreign Governments Under United States Antitrust Laws, James F. Ponsoldt, Jesse Stone

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

International Implications Of The 1982 Merger Guidelines, Vincent Draa

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Lessons From At&T'S Flop: How To Grow In The Technology Industry While Avoiding Section 7 Antitrust Obstacles, John Soma

The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law

No abstract provided.

A Sight For Sore Eyes: The Seventh Circuit Correctly Interprets Section 12 Of The Clayton Act, Ryan Moore

Seventh Circuit Review

In order to hail a defendant into federal court, a plaintiff must establish personal jurisdiction and venue. Under general principles of federal law, personal jurisdiction is proper whenever the defendant would be amenable to suit under the laws of the state in which the federal court sits. And venue is proper in any district where the defendant "resides" (i.e., is subject to personal jurisdiction). Section 12 of the Clayton Act, however, supplements these general principles. It has a liberal service-of-process provision that allows personal jurisdiction in any federal district court in the nation. But venue is proper only in the …

From Microsoft To Google: Intellectual Property, High Technology, And The Reorientation Of U.S. Competition Policy And Practice, William E. Kovacic

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Pay-To-Play: The Impact Of Group Purchasing Organizations On Drug Shortages, Christian Deroo

American University Business Law Review

No abstract provided.

Antitrust Law And Virtual Worlds, Marques Tracy

The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law

Much has been written about the law in virtual worlds, though the focus has been on the more obviously applicable areas of the law, namely property, copyright, and crime. Indeed, in the few instances when disputes involving virtual worlds have reached a federal court, the focus has usually been on contract or copyright claims. It is the purpose of this paper to argue for the use of the antitrust laws as set forth in sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act, and possibly the Clayton Act, to forestall the anticompetitive behavior of virtual world developers. First, this paper will …

Mixed Agendas And Government Regulation Of Business: Can We Clean Up The Mess?, Thomas M. Arnold, Jerry L. Stevens

University of Richmond Law Review

The purpose of this article is first to navigate through variousperspectives on government regulation in an effort to develop areasonable and consistent view for regulatory proposals. Parts II and III of this article provide a brief outline of our current regulatory environment and its evolution. Part IV presents arguments for an efficient regulation of business by using market based regulation with a separation of efficiency and equity issues, where feasible. Examples of this regulatory approach appear throughout the article along with suggested reforms.

Antitrust Error, Alan Devlin, Michael Jacobs

William & Mary Law Review

Fueled by economics, antitrust has evolved into a highly sophisticated body of law. Its malleable doctrine enables courts to tailor optimal standards to a wide variety of economic phenomena. Indeed, economic theory has been so revolutionary that modern U.S. competition law bears little resemblance to that which prevailed fifty years ago. Yet, for all the contributions of economics, its explanatory powers are subject to important limitations. Profound questions remain at the borders of contemporary antitrust enforcement, but answers remain elusive. It is because of the epistemological limitations of economic analysis that antitrust remains unusually vulnerable to error. The fear of …

Developing An Antitrust Injury Requirement For Injunctive Relief That Reflects The Probability Of Anticompetitive Harm, Yavar Bathaee

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

No abstract provided.

The Antitrust Aspects Of Bank Mergers - Panel Discussion I: Development Of Bank Merger Law, Carl Felsenfeld, Douglas Broder, Bert Foer, Dr. Anne Gron

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

No abstract provided.

Bank Merger Reform Takes An Extended Philadelphia National Bank Holiday, Edward Pekarek, Michela Huth

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

No abstract provided.

The Antitrust Aspects Of Bank Mergers - Introduction, Carl Felsenfeld

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

No abstract provided.

Benefits From Private Antitrust Enforcement: An Analysis Of Forty Cases, Robert H. Lande, Joshua P. Davis

University of San Francisco Law Review

This Article provides an empirical basisfor assessing whether private enforcement of the antitrust laws serves its intended purposes and is in the public interest. It does this by assembling, aggregating, and analyzing information about forty of the largest recent successful private antitrust cases.

Reconsidering The D.C. Circuit’S Proximate Cause Standard For Extraterrotorial Jurisdiction: Precluding The “Globalization” Theory To Promote Global Enforcement, Michelle A. Wyant

Richmond Journal of Global Law & Business

As businesses expanded with the rise of globalization, so did the effects of anticompetitive activity and, in turn, the reach of the U.S. antitrust laws. Though Congress addressed the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the U.S. antitrust laws with its implementation of the Foreign Trade Antitrust Improvement Act (“FTAIA”), the statute only created a three-way circuit split that led the Supreme Court to address the issue and determine that the foreign injury must arise from both foreign anticompetitive activity and the activity’s adverse effects on domestic commerce. The D.C. Circuit further clarified the issue on remand by requiring a proximate cause relationship …

Guideline Institutionalization: The Role Of Merger Guidelines In Antitrust Discourse, Hillary Greene

William & Mary Law Review

With the growth of the administrative state, agency-promulgated enforcement policy statements, typically referred to as guidelines, have become ubiquitous in the U.S. federal system. Yet, the actual usage and impact of such guidelines is poorly understood. Often the issuing agencies declare the guidelines to be nonbinding, even for themselves. Notwithstanding this disclaimer, the government, private parties, and even the courts frequently rely on the guidelines in a precedent-like manner. In this Article, Professor Greene examines the evolution of one system of enforcement policy guidelines-the U.S. federal antitrust merger guidelines--and finds that these guidelines have acted as a stealth force on …

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

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.