Exam 20: Antitrust Law

A retailer is told by the manufacturer the minimum price at which a product can be sold. In antitrust this is an example of:

A ____ occurs when a group conspires to prevent the carrying on of business or to harm a business.

Among the groups usually favoring resale price maintenance agreements are small retailers and producers of well-known products.

Fact Pattern 20-1 MicroManage is the fastest growing home-software producer in the country. In 2000, it sold 6% of all home software in the U.S., but in 2011, it sold 55% of all home software. A recent issue of Computer Universe said that MicroManage was "the most dominant and aggressive of all home-software developers." Home software is a small part of the entire software industry. In 2011, MicroManage proposed a merger with Game Master, its main rival. Game Master was responsible for 10% of all home-software sales in 2010. MicroManage's president says that the combination of the firms will allow MicroManage to lower costs and pass the savings on to its customers. The Department of Justice filed suit to stop this merger, claiming the combination would give monopoly power to the merged firm. Justice insists that consumers would lose in the end. -Refer to Fact Pattern 20-1. Under the rule established in Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. U.S., a merger between MicroManage and Game Master is likely to result in a:

In general, ____ is held to be the worst violation of antitrust laws.

China's Anti-Monopoly Law is essentially the Sherman Act.

Acme produces hamburger at a processing plant. Stores send trucks to pick up the meat. Prince, a large chain of grocery stores, tells Acme it will buy its hamburger if Acme will charge it 5% less than what the grocery stores pay. Acme sells the meat to Prince for less. What violation of the antitrust law may have occurred?

One successful defense that some firms have recently used to argue that a merger should be allowed is called:

Defenses for firms charged with Robinson-Patman Act violations include:

The most common result of opposition to a merger, such as the proposed merger of Staples and Office Depot, is that:

In U.S. v. Trenton Potteries Co., competitors openly fixed prices and restrained sales. The Supreme Court held that:

O Computers are sold by stores that have suggested retail price lists to follow. Store X always offers the computers for 20% less than list price. The other stores tell O they will quit carrying its computers if X keeps selling them so cheaply. O quits selling computers to X, so as to not lose the other stores. This is probably not an antitrust violation.

Some activities of nonprofit groups and agricultural cooperatives are exempt from the antitrust laws.

As illustrated in State Oil Co. v. Khan, where a gasoline distributor controlled the maximum gas sales markup that its gas station dealers could charge (maximum price fixing), the Supreme Court has held that:

The Clayton Act was amended by the Robinson-Patman Act in:

To help businesses and regulators assess the antitrust implications of a merger, the Department of Justice and FTC created:

In Todd v. Exxon Corp. the court held that a group of oil companies could share salary information because it was public information that was available to all parties.

The Clayton Act is intended to:

A firm's market share refers to: