Showing results for: “RPM”
SCOTUS Denies Cert in Leegin II
From the WSJ: The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to take another look at its controversial 2007 antitrust ruling that allowed manufacturers to set retail prices for their products. The court, without comment, rejected an appeal by the Texas boutique retailer that was on the losing end of the court’s 5-4 decision nearly four ... SCOTUS Denies Cert in Leegin II
Please Stop Calling RPM Price-Fixing, Part 3
The next installment in a seemingly never-ending series (see here for earlier offenders). This time, its the California Attorney General Kamala Harris in a press release announcing a settlement with Bioelements, Inc., a Colorado-based company which sells skin care products in salons and online. The relevant allegation, from the Complaint (Para. 10) is the following: ... Please Stop Calling RPM Price-Fixing, Part 3
Will Leegin Return to the SCOTUS?
See Update Below. The Supreme Court’s ruling in PSKS v. Leegin Creative Leather Products, which reversed Dr. Miles and ended the per se rule for minimum resale price maintenance, remanded the case to the district court to consider claims under the new rule of reason analysis. On remand, PSKS filed a second amended complaint alleging ... Will Leegin Return to the SCOTUS?
Antitrust and Congress
Last Thursday and Friday, I attended a conference at Case Western Law School on the Roberts Court’s business law decisions. I presented a paper on the Court’s antitrust decisions. (The paper, described here, is now available on SSRN.) Adam Pritchard, Matt Bodie, and Brian Fitzpatrick presented papers considering the Court’s treatment of, respectively, securities law, ... Antitrust and Congress
The Roberts Court and the Limits of Antitrust
I’ve just finished a draft of a paper for an upcoming conference on the Roberts Court’s business law decisions. Volokh blogger Jonathan Adler, who directs the Center for Business Law and Regulation at Case Western, is organizing the conference. The other presenters are Adam Pritchard from Michigan (covering the Court’s securities decisions), Brian Fitzpatrick from ... The Roberts Court and the Limits of Antitrust
“I’m not going to praise the Leegin decision”
Compared to the nominations of Justices Alito, Roberts and Sotomayor, there has been little excitement for the antitrust community on the most recent Supreme Court nomination of Elena Kagan. But there is something. The WSJ Law Blog reports that while Kagan refused to “praise the Leegin decision.” Legal Times reports that in response to Senator ... “I’m not going to praise the Leegin decision”
Solving Shelf Space Incentive Conflicts With Vertical Integration and By Contract in the Soda Market
There is a nice example in the WSJ concerning the economics of vertical contractual arrangements. I’ve noted previously the apparent trend in the soda industry toward vertical integration and the link to the economics of promotional shelf space. In particular, incentive conflicts between manufacturers and retailers of differentiated products over the use of promotional shelf ... Solving Shelf Space Incentive Conflicts With Vertical Integration and By Contract in the Soda Market
Comments on Jonathan Baker's Preserving a Political Bargain
I’ve recently finished reading Jonathan Baker’s Preserving a Political Bargain: The Political Economy of the Non-Interventionist Challenge to Monopolization Enforcement, forthcoming in the Antitrust Law Journal. Baker’s central thesis in Preserving a Political Bargain builds on earlier work concerning competition policy as an implicit political bargain that was reached during the 1940s between the more ... Comments on Jonathan Baker's Preserving a Political Bargain
Leegin Legislation Update
A Senate panel approved the Leegin Bill on a voice vote (HT: Main Justice). The story behind the link suggests that there is some Republican opposition brewing. I suspect there will be hearings. The Bill’s findings make the following two observations: (3) Many economic studies showed that the rule against resale price maintenance led to ... Leegin Legislation Update
The Commission Wins an Exclusive Dealing Case
Today, the Commission announced a consent decree with Transitions Optical in an exclusionary conduct case. Here’s the FTC description: Transitions Optical, Inc., the nation’s leading manufacturer of photochromic treatments that darken corrective lenses used in eyeglasses, has agreed to stop using allegedly anticompetitive practices to maintain its monopoly and increase prices, under a settlement with ... The Commission Wins an Exclusive Dealing Case
Correcting the Record: AAG Varney and the Chicago School's Premature "Retirement"
Geoff recently highlighted AAG Christine Varney’s closing remarks at the Horizontal Merger Guidelines workshop and was fairly critical. Thom intervened to suggest that we at TOTM, while fairly critical of the agencies from time to time, also give credit where it is due — highlighting AAG Varney’s RPM article. OK, that’s enough credit for now. ... Correcting the Record: AAG Varney and the Chicago School's Premature "Retirement"
Varney Gets It Right on RPM
Tomorrow I will be presenting my paper, A Decision-Theoretic Rule of Reason for Minimum Resale Price Maintenance, at the Next Generation of Antitrust Scholarship Conference at NYU Law School. (Kudos to Danny Sokol for co-organizing what promises to be a terrific event!) My paper criticizes four proposed approaches to evaluating RPM post-Leegin, and it sets ... Varney Gets It Right on RPM
