Antitrust Looms Large in the Supreme Court's Past Term

The Supreme Court had an uncommonly active year in 2007 in the area of antitrust, deciding four cases:

• In Leegin Creative Leather Products, Inc. v. PSKS, Inc.,(1) the Court overruled nearly a century of precedent when it held that vertical agreements between manufacturers and retailers to set minimum resale prices are to be analyzed under a rule of reason standard, rather than under the per se rule.
• The Court re-examined the pleading standard on a Rule 12 motion to dismiss in Bell Atlantic Corp. v.Twombly,(2) dealing specifically with complaints alleging a conspiracy based on parallel behavior.
• In Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC v. Billing,(3) the Court held that the antitrust laws were implicitly repealed by the securities laws with respect to conduct involving the promotion and sale of newly issued securities.
• Finally, the Court held in Weyerhaeuser Co. v. Ross-Simmons Hardwood Lumber Co.(4) that the legal standard applicable to predatory pricing by a monopolist also applies to allegedly predatory buying activity by a monopsonist.

This article, which can be found here, discusses each of these decisions.