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Full-Text Articles in Law
Conservation Cartels: How Competition Policy Conflicts With Environmental Protection, Jonathan H. Adler
Conservation Cartels: How Competition Policy Conflicts With Environmental Protection, Jonathan H. Adler
Faculty Publications
The alleged purpose of antitrust law is to improve consumer welfare by proscribing actions and arrangements that reduce output and increase prices. Conservation seeks to improve human welfare by maximizing the long-term productive use of natural resources, a goal that often requires limiting consumption to sustainable levels. While conservation measures might increase prices in the short run, they enhance consumer welfare by increasing long-term production and ensuring the availability of valued resources over time. That is true whether the restrictions are imposed by a private conservation cartel or a government agency. Insofar as antitrust law fails to take this into …
Tweaking Antitrust's Business Model , Thom Lambert
Tweaking Antitrust's Business Model , Thom Lambert
Faculty Publications
This essay evaluates Hovenkamp's suggestions, concluding that most are sound, that a few might be slightly revised to enhance their effectiveness or administrability, and that a couple are downright unwise. In particular, the essay criticizes Hovenkamp's call for abandonment of the indirect purchaser rule and his proposed test for identifying exclusionary conduct under Section 2 of the Sherman Act.
The 'Failure To Mitigate' Defense In Antitrust, Thom Lambert
The 'Failure To Mitigate' Defense In Antitrust, Thom Lambert
Faculty Publications
The article begins with the premise that any failure to mitigate defense should aim to minimize the sum of three costs: the costs associated with inefficient behavior by defendants, the costs associated with inefficient behavior by plaintiffs, and the administrative costs of claim adjudication. If cost minimization is the goal, then whether a failure to mitigate defense exists, and the content of the antitrust plaintiff’s mitigation requirement, should differ depending on the type of damages the plaintiff is seeking to recover. The bulk of this article discusses how the defense should apply to different damages claims.The article proceeds as follows: …
Weyerhaeuser And The Search For Antitrust's Holy Grail, Thom Lambert
Weyerhaeuser And The Search For Antitrust's Holy Grail, Thom Lambert
Faculty Publications
A general definition of exclusionary conduct has become a sort of Holy Grail for antitrust scholars. At present, four proposed definitions appear most promising: (1) conduct that could exclude an equally efficient rival; (2) conduct that raises rivals' costs unjustifiably; (3) conduct that, on balance, impairs consumer welfare by creating market power without providing countervailing consumer benefits; and (4) conduct that makes no economic sense but for its exclusionary effect on rivals.