Course Information

623 - Federal Antitrust Law

Professor: Peter P. Swire
Credits: 3
Semester: 2008 Autumn
Second Writing? No
Seminar? No
Professional Responsibility? No

The antitrust laws are designed to prevent private parties from interfering with free, competitive markets. In the absence of direct government regulation, such markets are thought to best serve consumer interests. We look at the law’s concern with undue market power and how market power is identified and defined, examining the statutory prohibitions upon cartel behavior and upon monopolization and attempts to monopolize. We study a series of business practices that allegedly either restrain trade or increase market power, including combinations of firms to fix prices or to divide territories or customers, group boycotts, restrictions in distribution, predatory pricing, refusals to deal, and mergers and acquisitions.

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