On April 9, the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice held a public roundtable on the subject of criminal antitrust compliance. If any other Division of the DOJ had done this, it would not be particularly exceptional, but within the antitrust compliance world, it was significant—exciting even! Since at least the time of the…
Woodman’s Food Market is a chain of warehouse-style grocery stores in Wisconsin. As such, its sales strategy was similar to that employed by Costco and Sam’s Club: the ability to purchase groceries at lower prices by purchasing in large size containers. However, Woodman’s did not charge a membership fee as a prerequisite to shopping at…
As we all know, human beings are imperfect. Even when they are told how to do something, they sometimes just don’t follow instructions. The consequences of not following instructions can run the gamut — from a cake that doesn’t rise when you decide to skip the yeast to a stint in jail when you decide to fix…
The Eight Circuit, in FTC v. Lundbeck, Inc., No. 10-3458/3459 (Aug. 19, 2011), upheld the district court’s finding that the FTC failed to show a relevant market, and thus was unable to challenge the acquisition of the drug NeoProfen. It already owned a drug called Indocin IV, which, along with NeoProfen, was used to treat…
The recent decision in Coalition for a Level Playing Field, LLC v. Autozone, Inc., 2010-2 Trade Cas. ¶ 77,182 (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 16, 2010) was a bit surprising to me. The essence of the case was that a group of smaller purchasers of auto parts (“jobbers”) felt that the big competitors were getting illegally discriminatory…
