Showing results for: “RPM”
A Decision-Theoretic Rule of Reason for Minimum Resale Price Maintenance
My latest working paper, which bears the same title as this post, is now available on SSRN. In the paper, I address the challenge created by the Supreme Court’s 2007 Leegin decision, which abrogated the 96 year-old rule declaring resale price maintenance (RPM) to be per se illegal. The Leegin Court held that instances of ... A Decision-Theoretic Rule of Reason for Minimum Resale Price Maintenance
Should PeaceHealth Apply to De Facto Exclusive Dealing Claims?
Thom answers this question in the affirmative in his excellent post about the Ninth Circuit’s analysis in Masimo and is disappointed that the Ninth Circuit rejected the discount attribution standard as the sole test for Section 2 in favor of a separate inquiry as to whether the bundled discount arrangement resulted in a substantial foreclosure ... Should PeaceHealth Apply to De Facto Exclusive Dealing Claims?
Babies-R-Us and the Case Against a Presumption of Illegality for Retailer-Initiated RPM
According to the Wall Street Journal, the FTC is investigating whether retailer Toys-R-Us has violated the antitrust laws by inducing certain manufacturers to set minimum resale prices for their products (i.e., to engage in resale price maintenance, or “RPM”). The Journal first reports that the Commission “is investigating whether [Toys-R-Us] may have violated an 11-year-old ... Babies-R-Us and the Case Against a Presumption of Illegality for Retailer-Initiated RPM
Dear Mr. Toobin
Jeff Toobin has an interesting profile on John Roberts in the New Yorker (HT: Jonathan Adler who also takes issue with Toobin’s description of Leegin, but goes on to challenge Toobin’s general account of Roberts as a “stealth nominee”). Toobin’s column has very little to do with antitrust. with the exception of one sentence describing ... Dear Mr. Toobin
Lambert's Latest on RPM in the William and Mary Law Review
The law and economics of RPM have been a frequent topic of discussion here for Thom and I especially, ranging from the empirical evidence on RPM, to competitive resale price maintenance without free riding, to the inappropriate use of the term “price-fixing” by journalists some who should know better to describe RPM, to the Commission’s ... Lambert's Latest on RPM in the William and Mary Law Review
RPM Workshop Testimony
I’ll be testifying tomorrow at the Federal Trade Commission hearings on Resale Price Maintenance. My panel will focus on rule of reason analysis of RPM Post-Leegin. There is a bit of awkwardness testifying about different modes of rule of reason analysis with legislation that would restore the Dr. Miles per se rule pending, but it ... RPM Workshop Testimony
Section 2 Symposium: Josh Wright on An Evidence Based Approach to Exclusive Dealing and Loyalty Discounts
The primary anticompetitive concern with exclusive dealing contracts is that a monopolist might be able to utilize exclusivity to fortify its market position, raise rivals’ costs of distribution, and ultimately harm consumers. The unifying economic logic of these anticompetitive models of exclusivity is that the potential entrant (or current rival) must attract a sufficient mass ... Section 2 Symposium: Josh Wright on An Evidence Based Approach to Exclusive Dealing and Loyalty Discounts
Section 2 Symposium: Bruce Kobayashi on Are Administrable Bright Line Rules Underutilized in Section 2 Analyses?
One of the most important changes in the antitrust laws over the past 40 years has been the diminished reliance of rules of per se illegality in favor of a rule of reason analysis. With the Court’s recent rulings in Leegin (eliminating per se rule for minimum RPM) and Independent Ink (eliminating the per se ... Section 2 Symposium: Bruce Kobayashi on Are Administrable Bright Line Rules Underutilized in Section 2 Analyses?
Maryland Adopts New Per Se Rule for Minimum RPM
A new law in Maryland will take effect on October 1 and will re-instate the Dr. Miles rule for minimum RPM. The Wall Street Journal reports that it is a “move that could lead to lower prices for consumers across the country.” I doubt it. There are quite a few reasons to believe that shifts ... Maryland Adopts New Per Se Rule for Minimum RPM
Dont Call It A Comeback
When I came onto the job market in 2004, a number of advisers told me that I should not market myself as an “antitrust guy.” The prevailing view on the job market was that “antitrust was dead.” This perception was conveyed one way or another in interviews or conversations with folks in the legal academy. ... Dont Call It A Comeback
Is the Chicago School Really Dead? How Do You Know?
Answer: not by a long shot. Not in the Supreme Court. Not in the empirical economics literature. But perhaps according to at least one FTC Commissioner in the new FTC annual report: Commissioner J. Thomas Rosch believes the current financial crisis has undermined the Chicago school of economics that has so heavily influenced antitrust enforcement ... Is the Chicago School Really Dead? How Do You Know?
Did the Chicago School Overshoot the Mark?
I’ve posted to SSRN a new essay entitled Overshot the Mark? A Simple Explanation of the Chicago School’s Influence on Antitrust. It is a book review of Robert Pitofsky’s recent volume How the Chicago School Overshot the Mark: The effect of Conservative Economic Analysis on U.S. Antitrust, and is forthcoming in Volume 5 of Competition ... Did the Chicago School Overshoot the Mark?
