I have not written a blog post in some time. Been busy, or perhaps a bit lazy, but the Fourth Circuit opinion in United States v. Brewbaker, __ F. 4th __(4th Cir. 12/1/2023), 2023-2 Trade Cases ¶82,716; 2023 Westlaw 8286490 caught my attention. The decision represents a surprising departure from black letter law that collusion between…
It has become common for defendants indicted on criminal antitrust charges to argue that the use of the per se rule in their trial is unconstitutional. The United States, however, has beaten back each attack with ample precedent from the relevant court of appeals fortified with long standing Supreme Court precedent (i.e., Trenton Potteries and…
On November 29, 2021 in U.S. v. Neeraj Jindal and John Rodgers, Civil Action No. 4:20-CR-00358A (N.D. Texas), District Court Judge Amos L. Mazzant rejected defendants’ motion to dismiss the indictment on various grounds, including challenges to the per se rule. Among other arguments, defendants argued that “wage-fixing” was not covered by the Sherman Act…
A petition for review is before the Supreme Court filed by three California real estate investors who were convicted after trial under Section 1 of the Sherman Act for bid rigging at real estate foreclosure auctions. The defendants preserved their objection that the application of the per se rule was unconstitutional because it took an…
Earlier this month, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled that the reasonableness of a vertical price fixing agreement is not to be considered when determining whether such an agreement violates the Kansas Restraint of Trade Act (KRTA). Kansas Supreme Court precedent that called for a “reasonableness rubric”—a determination of whether a restraint was reasonable in view…
