Portfolio 52-2nd: State Antitrust Law

I. Introduction to State Enforcement of Antitrust Laws
. Introductory Material
A. Sources of State Enforcement Authority
1. Criminal enforcement
2. Civil enforcement
a. Federal law
b. State law
B. State Enforcement Activities
1. Vertical restraints
2. Mergers
3. Joint ventures
4. Horizontal restraints
5. Monopolization
6. Boycotts
7. Single state actions
C. Coordination of Enforcement
1. Among states
2. State and federal coordination

II. Interface of the Federal and State Antitrust Laws
. Introductory Material
A. State Antitrust Laws as an Undue Burden on Interstate Commerce
B. Preemption Defenses
1. Preemption of state antitrust laws
2. Concurrent or parallel federal and state antitrust litigation, as exemplified by indirect purchaser actions
3. Dual federal and state antitrust enforcement
C. The Federal Anti-Injunction Act
D. The Effect of Federal Precedents on State Law Claims

III. Monopolization
A. Definitions of Monopoly
1. The English common law versus the American view of monopoly
2. Monopoly as defined by market shares or impact
a. Monopolistic market shares
b. Insufficient market shares
3. State courts’ application of the federal case law on monopoly power
B. Types of Monopolization
1. Monopoly by public regulation
a. Federal constitutional limitations
b. Government award of an exclusive privilege
c. Public regulation with monopolistic effects
(1). Price and production regulation
(2). Market entry restrictions
(3). Geographic restrictions
(4). Exclusive bid specifications
d. Permissible public interest regulation
2. Monopolization by acquisition, common management, and joint operating agreements
3. Abuse of patents
4. Exclusive dealing and contracts
5. Covenants not to compete
6. Predatory pricing
C. Attempt to Monopolize and Conspiracy to Monopolize
1. Attempt to monopolize
2. Conspiracy to monopolize
D. Defenses in Monopolization Cases
1. Economic defenses
2. Statutory defenses

IV. Horizontal Restraints
. Introductory Material
A. Price Fixing
1. Express agreements on price
2. Agreements to limit supply
3. Elimination of discounts
4. Uniform prices and terms of trade
5. Joint ventures
6. Bid rigging
7. Exchange of market information
8. Requirements contracts
9. Advertising restrictions
10. Common delivery systems
11. State pricing statutes
B. Allocation of Territories and Customers
C. Boycotts
1. Economic boycotts
2. Trade association boycotts
3. Political boycotts
D. Trade Associations
E. Ancillary Agreements Not to Compete
1. Sale or lease of a business
2. Employment covenants

V. Vertical Restraints
A. Introduction
B. Exclusive Dealings
1. Exclusive contracts
2. Exclusive distributorships
a. Territorial restrictions
b. Product and customer restrictions
c. Time limitations
3. Various approaches to evaluating legality of exclusive dealings
a. The public welfare test
b. The monopoly power test
c. The substantial-lessening-of-competition test
d. The market-price-impact test
e. The horizontal-effects test
f. The good-faith test
g. Vertical Restraints Guidelines of the National Association of Attorneys General
4. Defenses in vertical restraint cases
a. Economic defenses
b. Legitimate business reasons
C. Vertical Price Fixing or Resale Price Maintenance
1. The majority view
2. The minority view
3. Defenses in resale price maintenance cases
a. The single-trade doctrine
b. The agency or consignment defense
4. Ancillary retail price agreements
D. Tying Arrangements
1. The elements of the tying-arrangement offense
a. Two products
b. Sufficient economic power
c. Not insubstantial amount of commerce
2. Types of actionable tying arrangements
3. Rejected tying claims
4. Special defenses in tying arrangement cases

VI. Mergers and Acquisitions
A. Mergers and Acquisitions as Restraints of Trade
1. State common law
2. State merger statutes
B. State Court Merger Remedies
C. Defenses in State Merger Cases
D. Merger Enforcement by State Attorneys General
1. Horizontal merger guidelines
2. Voluntary pre-merger disclosure compact
3. Protocol for coordination in merger investigations between the federal enforcement agencies and state attorneys general

VII. Predatory Pricing
. Introductory Material
A. Sales Below Cost
1. Definitions of cost
2. Judicial definitions of cost
3. Types of actionable sales-below-cost claims
4. Permissible sales below cost
5. Defenses
B. Price Discrimination
1. Geographic or area price discrimination
2. Customer price discrimination
a. Primary and secondary lines
b. Quantity and functional discrimination
c. Types of price discrimination claims
d. Defenses
e. Rebates

VIII. Antitrust Immunities
. Introductory Material
A. Judicially Created Antitrust Immunities and Exemptions
1. First Amendment activities
2. The federal ‘state action doctrine'
3. The states' ‘state action doctrine'
4. The ‘act of foreign government' doctrine
5. The Noerr-Pennington doctrine
6. The ‘learned profession' exemption/defense
7. The baseball exemption
8. The ‘primary jurisdiction' doctrine
B. Statutory Exemptions
1. Labor
2. Insurance