In 1994, the Full Federal Court upheld the decision of the trial judge to prevent the hostile acquisition of a majority shareholding in QIW Retailers Ltd (QIW) by Davids Holdings (Davids), on the grounds that, as a result of the proposed merger, the merged company would be in a position to...

In the classic cartel, supposed competitors meet in the proverbial smoke-filled hotel room and agree to fix prices at supra-competitive levels. Even though the “agreement” is unlikely to be legally binding on the parties (i.e., the agreement could not be enforced against one of the...

In the only predatory pricing case in Australia to reach the High Court, the ideas and recommendations contained in the 1975 Harvard law Review article by Phillip Areeda and Donald Turner were at the heart of the case. That case, the Boral case, decided by the High Court in 2003, raised a number...

Economists widely agree that, absent sufficient efficiencies or other offsetting factors, mergers that increase concentration substantially are likely to be anticompetitive. Further, holding everything else equal, the magnitude of anticompetitive effects tends to be larger, the larger is the...

A by-product of the surge of inflation that was triggered by the OPEC oil price increases in the early 1970s was an intensified interest in competition policy in the US and in Western Europe as governments, unwilling or unable to tackle OPEC directly, sought alternative villains and solutions....

My assignment is to discuss some of the recent economic research on vertical restraints and, in particular, to examine what economists have been saying about the free rider rationale for vertical restraints. I will focus my remarks on those vertical restraints that are generally referred to as...

My assignment is to discuss likely future developments involving single firm conduct. I will first discuss general trends and then move on to discuss some specific areas of the law. At the onset, however, I should remind the reader that what follows are predictions, not endorsements

My remarks consist of a series of observations, followed by several semi-rhetorical questions. These observations and questions are designed to focus attention on what I regard as the key elements in the ongoing debate about vertical restraints

This paper summarizes and comments on two recent FTC cases. The first case involved accusations of predatory pricing against Borden, the manufacturer of ReaLemon, the dominant brand of reconstituted lemon juice. The second involved price-signaling and other so-called facilitating practices by...

The concept of market power is at the core of antitrust. Philosophically, antitrust policy is aimed primarily at preventing firms from achieving, retaining, or abusing market power. Operationally, assessing whether a firm or firms have market power or any reasonable prospect for achieving it is...