Antitrust Policy and Vertical Restraints

Antitrust Policy and Vertical Restraints PDF Author: Robert W. Hahn
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 0815733925
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 107

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Book Description
A Brookings Institution Press and American Enterprise Institute publication Antitrust law is intended to protect consumer welfare and foster competition. At first glance, however, it is often unclear whether certain business practices have positive or detrimental effects. Businesses frequently engage in activities that may appear anticompetitive on the surface, but are actually beneficial to consumers. Business tying practices, for example, make the sale of one product conditional upon the sale of another product. This practice can either deprive consumers of choice and drive up prices or lower costs and improve convenience. Therefore, it is critical that policymakers have a keen understanding of which vertical restraints—limitations imposed on businesses by firms located in the production chain—are likely to harm consumers more than they benefit competition. In order to formulate economically efficient policies, they must be able to identify and limit those practices that are likely to do more harm than good. In Antitrust Policy and Vertical Restraints a group of leading scholars takes a hard look at how restraints limit the conditions under which firms may purchase, sell, or resell a good or service. The authors, representing both sides of the antitrust debate over tying practices, provide a uniquely broad perspective on this critical economic policy issue. Contributors include Dennis Carlton (University of Chicago), David Evans (University College London), Bruce Kobayashi (George Mason University), and Michael Waldman (Cornell University).

Antitrust Policy and Vertical Restraints

Antitrust Policy and Vertical Restraints PDF Author: Robert W. Hahn
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 0815733925
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 107

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Book Description
A Brookings Institution Press and American Enterprise Institute publication Antitrust law is intended to protect consumer welfare and foster competition. At first glance, however, it is often unclear whether certain business practices have positive or detrimental effects. Businesses frequently engage in activities that may appear anticompetitive on the surface, but are actually beneficial to consumers. Business tying practices, for example, make the sale of one product conditional upon the sale of another product. This practice can either deprive consumers of choice and drive up prices or lower costs and improve convenience. Therefore, it is critical that policymakers have a keen understanding of which vertical restraints—limitations imposed on businesses by firms located in the production chain—are likely to harm consumers more than they benefit competition. In order to formulate economically efficient policies, they must be able to identify and limit those practices that are likely to do more harm than good. In Antitrust Policy and Vertical Restraints a group of leading scholars takes a hard look at how restraints limit the conditions under which firms may purchase, sell, or resell a good or service. The authors, representing both sides of the antitrust debate over tying practices, provide a uniquely broad perspective on this critical economic policy issue. Contributors include Dennis Carlton (University of Chicago), David Evans (University College London), Bruce Kobayashi (George Mason University), and Michael Waldman (Cornell University).

Antitrust Policy and Vertical Restraints

Antitrust Policy and Vertical Restraints PDF Author: Robert W. Hahn
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Antitrust law is intended to protect consumer welfare and foster competition. At first glance, however, it is often unclear whether certain business practices have positive or detrimental effects. Some activities that appear anticompetitive can actually prove beneficial to consumers. In Antitrust Policy and Vertical Restraints leading law and economics scholars take a hard look at how vertical restraints limit the conditions under which firms may purchase, sell, or resell a good or service. Vertical restraints can be defined as any arrangement between firms operating at different levels of the manufacturing or distribution chain that restricts the conditions under which such firms may purchase, sell, or resell. Business tying and bundling practices, as one example, often come under scrutiny for depriving consumers of choice and driving up prices. In practice, however, bundling can lower costs and increase convenience. In order to formulate efficient policy, we must be able to identify and limit those practices that are likely to do more harm than good. It is critical that policymakers and analysts know which vertical restraints are likely to harm consumers more than they benefit competition. The authors, representing both sides of the debate over tying practices, provide a broad and informed perspective on this important issue.

Vertical Restraints in the Digital Economy

Vertical Restraints in the Digital Economy PDF Author: Adina Claici
Publisher: Kluwer Law International B.V.
ISBN: 9403532440
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 156

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Book Description
Vertical agreements between undertakings at the various levels of a supply chain have long been seen as a fundamental focus for antitrust legislation, such as the European Union’s Vertical Block Exemption Regulation (VBER). It goes without saying that such issues are particularly prevalent in digital markets. This authoritative commentary analyses the main restrictions in vertical agreements, emphasising the numerous new and contentious issues arising in the context of Internet distribution. It offers both legal and economic perspectives, as well as examines enforcement and possible changes to the legislation. The contributors – leading competition authority officials, lawyers, economists, and academics – provide in-depth discussions of topics that have emerged as areas for conscious policy choices, including the following: restrictions of online sales; price parity obligations; resale price maintenance; the duration of non-compete obligations; sustainability agreements; geo-blocking practices; and restraint of trade in pharmaceuticals. The contributions have emerged from the 2020 conference of the Global Competition Law Centre at the College of Europe in the context of the currently ongoing review of the VBER and vertical guidelines. With its multidisciplinary approach highlighting the efficiencies and harms caused by the restrictions at stake, this important book clearly shows how law and practice apply to specific issues relating to digital markets and how the law is likely to change in the near future. It will be of immeasurable value to lawyers and officials concerned with European competition law and academics in the field.

Vertical Agreements and Competition Law

Vertical Agreements and Competition Law PDF Author: Sandra Marco Colino
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1847315615
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 222

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Book Description
This book focuses on the current legal framework for vertical agreements in the EU and the US. Over the last ten years, antitrust rules governing these agreements have undergone thorough reform. In the EU, the old sector-specific block exemptions were replaced by Regulation 2790/99, applicable to all sectors of the economy. In addition, changes introduced to the procedural rules have led to the decentralisation of Article 81(3) and the removal of the notification requirement. In like manner, in the US the Supreme Court has gradually taken vertical restraints out of the per se illegality rule. What Sylvania achieved in placing non-price vertical restraints under the rule of reason in the late 1970s, the Khan judgment did for maximum resale price maintenance in 1997, whilst most recently and most significantly in 2007 the Leegin case followed suit for minimum resale price maintenance. The book is divided into four chapters. The first chapter considers the 'double nature' of vertical agreements and the regulatory dilemma. The second chapter explores the most influential economic theories underpinning current regulatory frameworks, and how these theories shape antitrust policy. The third chapter questions the adequacy of the current economic analysis in recent EU and US legislation and court decisions. The fourth chapter analyses how this maturing economic analysis can be reconciled with what commentators and regulators have identified as a key role for competition policy, redressing assumed imbalances between dealers and manufacturers. The author concludes by querying the prevailing logic of protecting sectoral interests above the competitive process.

Regulating Vertical Agreements

Regulating Vertical Agreements PDF Author: Maria Fernanda Caporale Madi
Publisher: Kluwer Law International B.V.
ISBN: 9403526513
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
Vertical agreements represent a variety of supply and distribution contracts involving different market players, such as suppliers of diverse inputs, manufacturers, distributors and retailers. They gain particular significance in a global economy where technological advances are dynamic and are changing all the time. Such agreements are signed among businesspeople on a daily basis, and antitrust experts around the world are often asked to advise on whether they have any negative impact on competition or whether they infringe antitrust law. Taking into consideration the complex economic impacts of these vertical alliances, and the different market conditions that firms face in a wide variety of situations, the author proposes an in-depth examination of the following topics: resale price-fixing; geo-blocking clauses; exclusive and selective distribution systems; the concept of ‘economic efficiency’ in the context of vertical restraints; self-assessment of potential anticompetitive effects and antitrust risks; ex post control of vertical restraints; digital economies and its policy impact; alternative enforcement models under various institutional frameworks; the role and influence of political pressure groups. The book offers very constructive theoretical and political insights at the frontier between the disciplines of Economics and Law. By comparing two world’s leading antitrust jurisdictions, this book explores the lessons to be learned from the legal rules in the European Union and in Brazil, considering their promises and drawbacks, and formulates policy recommendations.

Market Dominance and Antitrust Policy

Market Dominance and Antitrust Policy PDF Author: Michael A. Utton
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1843767481
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 342

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Book Description
Market dominance - encompassing single firm dominance, overt and tacit collusion, mergers and vertical restraints - raises many complex analytical and policy issues, all of which continue to be the subject of theoretical research and policy reform. This second edition of a popular and comprehensive text extends the arguments and combines an analysis of the issues with a discussion of actual policy and case studies. This new edition addresses the recent fundamental changes in antitrust law, especially in the UK and the EU, and reviews some high profile and controversial cases such as the Boeing-McDonnell Douglas merger and the Microsoft monopoly. The author moves on to deal with several unresolved questions including the conflicts between trade and antitrust policy, the foreign take-over of domestic assets and extra-territorial claims made by certain countries.

Antitrust Law and Economics

Antitrust Law and Economics PDF Author: Keith N. Hylton
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1849805288
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 311

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Book Description
In this outstanding new book Professor Keith Hylton and his collaborators examine what antitrust law has become over the past ten years, a time in which economic analysis has become its undisputed core. What has become of the old antitrust doctrine, what are the new issues for the immediate future? This book brings together the leading experts to examine this silent revolution at the core of US domestic policy. Mark Grady, UCLA School of Law, US Hylton s Antitrust Law and Economics brings together many of the best authors writing in antitrust today. Their essays range widely, covering proof of agreement under the Sherman Act, group boycotts, monopolization and essential facilities, tying and other vertical restraints, and merger policy. The writing is clear, accessible but still technically sophisticated and comprehensive. This book represents the best in contemporary antitrust scholarship, by authors who understand and are able to communicate the centrality of economic analysis to antitrust. No antitrust lawyer, serious antitrust student, or antitrust economist should be without this book. Herbert Hovenkamp, University of Iowa College of Law, US This comprehensive book provides an extensive overview of the major topics of antitrust law from an economic perspective. Its in-depth treatment and analysis of both the law and economics of antitrust is presented via a collection of interconnected original essays. The contributing authors are among the most influential scholars in antitrust, with a rich diversity of backgrounds. Their entries cover, amongst other issues, predatory pricing, essential facilities, tying, vertical restraints, enforcement, mergers, market power, monopolization standards, and facilitating practices. This well-organized and substantial work will be invaluable to professors of American antitrust law and European competition law, as well as students specializing in competition law. It will also be an important reference for professors and graduate students of economics and business.

Antitrust Law

Antitrust Law PDF Author: Keith N. Hylton
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521793780
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 436

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Book Description
Preface p. xi 1 Economics p. 1 I. Definitions p. 1 II. Perfect Competition Versus Monopoly p. 9 III. Further Topics p. 21 2 Law and Policy p. 27 I. Some Interpretation Issues p. 28 II. Enacting the Antitrust Law p. 30 III. What Should Antitrust Law Aim to Do? p. 40 3 Enforcement p. 43 I. Optimal Enforcement Theory p. 43 II. Enforcement Provision of the Antitrust Laws p. 47 Appendix p. 64 4 Cartels p. 68 I. Cartels p. 68 II. Conscious Parallelism p. 73 III. Conclusion p. 89 5 Development of Section 1 Doctrine p. 90 I. The Sherman Act Versus the Common Law p. 90 II. Rule of Reason and Per-Se Rule p. 104 III. Conclusion p. 112 6 Rule of Reason and Per-Se Rule p. 113 I. The Case for Price Fixing p. 113 II. Per-Se and Rule of Reason Analysis: Further Developments p. 116 III. Per-Se Versus Rule of Reason Tests: Understanding the Supreme Court's Justification for the Per-Se Rule p. 129 7 Agreement p. 132 I. The Development of Inference Doctrine p. 133 II. Rejection of Unilateral Contract Theory p. 140 8 Facilitating Mechanisms p. 144 I. Data Dissemination Cases p. 145 II. Basing Point Pricing and Related Practices p. 154 III. Basing Point Pricing: Economics p. 160 9 Boycotts p. 166 I. Pre-Socony p. 166 II. Post-Socony p. 170 III. Post-BMI/Sylvania p. 181 IV. Conclusion p. 184 10 Monopolization p. 186 I. Development of Section 2 Doctrine p. 186 II. Leveraging and Essential Facility Cases p. 202 III. Predatory Pricing p. 212 IV. Conclusion p. 228 11 Power p. 230 I. Measuring Market Power p. 230 II. Determinants of Market Power p. 235 III. Substitutability and the Relevant Market: Cellophane p. 237 IV. Multimarket Monopoly and the Relevant Market: Alcoa p. 239 V. Measuring Power: Guidelines p. 243 12 Attempts p. 244 I. The Swift Formula and Modern Doctrine p. 244 II. Dangerous Probability Requirement p. 248 13 Vertical Restraints p. 252 I. Resale Price Maintenance p. 252 II. Vertical Nonprice Restraints p. 262 III. Manufacturer Retains Title p. 267 IV. Agreement p. 270 14 Tying and Exclusive Dealing p. 279 I. Introduction p. 279 II. Early Cases p. 284 III. Development of Per-Se Rule p. 286 IV. Tension Between Rule of Reason Arguments and Per-Se Rule p. 295 V. Technological Tying p. 301 VI. Exclusive Dealing p. 303 Appendix p. 307 15 Horizontal Mergers p. 311 I. Reasons for Merging and Implications for Law p. 311 II. Horizontal Merger Law p. 317 III. Conclusion p. 330 Appendix p. 330 16 Mergers, Vertical and Conglomerate p. 333 I. Vertical Mergers p. 333 II. Conglomerate Mergers p. 344 III. Concluding Remarks p. 351 17 Antitrust and the State p. 352 I. Noerr-Pennington Doctrine p. 354 II. Parker Doctrine p. 371 III. Some Final Comments: Error Costs and Immunity Doctrines p. 375 Index p. 379.

Cartels and Anti-Competitive Agreements

Cartels and Anti-Competitive Agreements PDF Author: Sandra Marco Colino
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 135195329X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 566

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Book Description
Antitrust is fast becoming a ’trending topic’, with over 120 countries having already adopted some form of competition legislation. This volume brings together carefully selected articles which reflect the evolution and progression of the regulation of joint conduct under competition law on both sides of the Atlantic, and which discuss principles of fundamental importance for antitrust law. The articles focus on various kinds of joint conduct between companies which might bear negative effects on competition, in particular on horizontal cartels and collusion between competitors. Attention is also paid to the debate surrounding the most adequate approach for vertical agreements, which take place between firms operating at different levels of production. Their effects on competition have traditionally been one of the most disputed issues in modern antitrust, and tend to divide the principal schools of thought that have influenced the evolution of competition policy around the world. The articles look primarily at two of the most established antitrust jurisdictions, namely the United States and the European Union. They discuss the general theoretical framework that has influenced the evolution of the law and policy; cover the most relevant practical developments; provide contrasting doctrinal views and pay particular attention to the main schools of thought that have influenced antitrust in the US and the EU; and are representative of the leading discussions in the course of antitrust history.

Economics and Antitrust Policy

Economics and Antitrust Policy PDF Author: Robert Larner
Publisher: Praeger
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
As the economists and lawyers contributing to this volume demonstrate, an important element of the Reagan Revolution has been a fundamental shift in antitrust policy and enforcement away from the focus on market structure during the 1960s and early 1970s toward a greater emphasis on the effects of business conduct on economic efficiency and consumer welfare. This shift, caused both by a marked change in the political climate and changes in the thinking and research output of economists, has had an enormous impact on the volume and substance of antitrust activity during the 1980s. The articles collected here--each written especially for this volume--assess these changes in antitrust activity in key policy areas: mergers, vertical restraints, monopoly, and strategic behavior. The authors examine particularly the impact of the change in antitrust enforcement and policy on social welfare. They point out where changes have been beneficial, evaluate whether further changes in policy or law are desirable, and probe unresolved issues, such as whether current policy pays too little attention to the possible strategic or anticompetitive aspects of some forms of business conduct. Taken together, these essays offer a multifaceted explanation of the ways in which economics has contributed to changes in antitrust policy and law. By providing a more thorough understanding of developments in industrial economics during the last 30 years, the authors also provide lawyers, economists, business executives, and students of business administration with new insights into possible future trends in antitrust policy and law--and their impact on the structure of American businesses and markets.