Antitrust Law

Amitai Aviram

Fall 2004

Course Outline and Assigned Reading

 

I.                  Introduction to Antitrust

 

  1. The Goals of Antitrust

·        Case of Monopolies (29-31), Mitchel (31-33), notes (12-14, 33-35), In re duPont (144-145)

·        Legislation (in the Appendix, at the end of the casebook): (1) Sherman Act, Sections 1 and 2 [Appendix, p. 1]; (2) Federal Trade Commission Act, Section 5(a) [Appendix, p. 21]; (3) Clayton Act, Sections 2, 3 and 7 [Appendix, pp. 3-5, 11-12].

  1. Market Power

·        Washington Post Article (S1), Notes (169-172)

  1. Identifying Market Power

·        duPont (147-165), Grinnell (172-183), Notes (185-191), Pepsico (S2), Notes (199-203)

  1. Standards of Analysis

·        Addyston Pipe (56-59), BMI (233-245), Cal. Dental Assoc. (276-295)

 

II.               Monopolization

 

  1. Unilateral Pricing Practices: Excessive/Predatory Pricing

·        Fairdale Farms (S3), ALCOA (130-140), AMR (S4), Brooke Group (847-866)

 

  1. Unilateral Pricing Practices: Price Discrimination

·        Morton Salt (1302-1307), Texaco (1309-1319)

 

  1. Unilateral Non-Price Practices: Refusal to Deal

·        Lorain (832-835), Spectrum (837-842), Trinko (S5)

 

  1. Unilateral Non-Price Practices: Exclusive Dealing

·        Tampa Electric (939-944), U.S. Healthcare (953-960)

 

  1. Unilateral Non-Price Practices: Tying

·        Jefferson Parish (886-903), Kodak (903-920), Eliott (S6)

 

III.           Restraints of Trade

 

  1. Vertical Restraints

·        Colgate (679-683), Khan (634-643), GTE Sylvania (651-669), Toys R Us (505-518)

  1. Proving Collusion

·        Interstate Circuit (493-499), Theatre Enterprises (500-502), In re High Fructose Corn Syrup (S7), Notes (526-532)

  1. Horizontal Restraints: Per Se-Analysis

·        Palmer (321-323), Topco (305-316), General Leaseways (316-321), Klor's (336-339), NYNEX (339-345), NW Stationers (354-361), AP (381-386)

  1. Horizontal Restraints: Rule of Reason Analysis

·        JV Guidelines

 

IV.            Mergers

 

  1. Horizontal Mergers

·        Horiz. Merger Guidelines §1 (1034-1045), Horiz. Merger Guidelines §2-5 (1046-1058), Heinz (1067-1080), Hospital CoA (1015-1024)

 

  1. Vertical Mergers

·        Brown Shoe (1140-1145), Fruehauf (1148-1155), 1984 Merger Guidelines §4.2 (1156-1159)

 

  1. Conglomerate Mergers and Potential Competition

·        1984 Merger Guidelines §4.1 (1115-1118), Penn-Olin + Notes (1082-1090), P&G + Notes (1093-1109).

 

I.                  Limits on the Reach of Antitrust

 

  1. Standing & Antitrust Injury

·        Notes (99-106, 1024-1033)

 

  1. Influencing the Government / State Action

·        Noerr (410-418), MSL Andover (434-443), Parker + Notes (450-458), Midcal + Notes (458-467)

 

  1. Antitrust and Regulated Industries

·        Silver, Goldwasser, Trinko (S8)

 

  1. International Antitrust

·        American Banana (1172-1175), FTAIA (1192), Hartford Fire (1194-1203), Den Norske (1216-1229), Timberlane (1233-1244)

 

II.               Exam Preparation

 

·        The last class of the course will be spent providing information on the exam and answering questions on the exam or the course material.  There will be no reading assignment for this class.

 

Supplemental Reading:

 

S1. Kenneth Bredemeier, Those With Power Set the Price, The Washington Post, Sept. 24, 2003 (I will provide you with a copy of this article in the first class).

 

S2. Pepsico, Inc. v. The Coca-Cola Company, 114 F. Supp. 2d 243 (S.D.N.Y. 2000).

 

S3. Fairdale Farms, Inc. v. Yankee Milk, Inc., 715 F.2d 30 (C.A. Vt. 1983).

 

S4. U.S. v. AMR Corp., 335 F.3d 1109 (10th Cir. 2003).

 

S5. Verizon Communications Inc. v. Law Offices of Curtis V. Trinko, LLP, 540 U.S. 398, 124 S.Ct. 872 (2004).  Read Majority opinion only.

 

S6. Eliott v. United Center, 126 F.3d 1003 (7th Cir. 1997).

 

S7. In Re High Fructose Corn Syrup Antitrust Litigation, 295 F.3d 651 (7th Cir. 2002).

 

S8. Silver v. New York Stock Exchange, 373 U.S. 341 (1963); Goldwasser v. Ameritech Corp., 222 F.3d 390, 391-396, 399-402 (7th Cir. 2000); Trinko v. Bell Atlantic Corp., 305 F.3d 89, 107-113 (2nd Cir 2002).

 

 

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