Modern antitrust law has made it increasingly difficult for unilateral terminations of vertical relationships between suppliers and distributors or dealers to be attacked through the use of federal and state antitrust laws.
The last remaining theory of per se liability— minimum resale price maintenance—is no longer per se under § 1 of the Sherman Act after the Supreme Court’s groundbreaking decision in Leegin Creative Leather Products, Inc. v. PSKS, Inc., 551 U.S. 877 (2007) (Leegin). Perhaps more important, increasingly demanding market-power screens have made § 1 and any corresponding state antitrust laws less of an issue.
Originally published in Antitrust & Trade Regulation Report, 107 ATRR 743, 12/05/2014.
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