More than 100 years ago, monopolization was first criminalized in the United States under the Sherman Act. While Section 1 of the Act makes it a crime to agree with another economic actor to fix the prices of any commodity or service, it does not criminalize attempts to fix prices.
Speakers: Daniel I. Booker Daniel H. Ahn Courtney Bedell Averbach Christopher R. Brennan Michelle A. Mantine Edward B. Schwartz Gregory D. Vose Michaela Westrup
Event Type: Webinar, CLE / CPD
Date: 30 November 2022, 9:00 AM PT - 10:00 AM PT
Registration Link: Back to the antitrust future – Do attempts to fix prices violate the Sherman Act (and what else is new)?
The issue of criminal liability for attempting to violate antitrust laws has become a hot topic in the aftermath of the U.S. Justice Department's Antitrust Division charging a business owner with a felony for attempting to allocate territories between competitors, which is widely seen as a form of price fixing. Since the attempt did not come to fruition, the government could not indict under Section 1 of the Sherman Act. Instead, it set a new precedent by charging this as a criminal violation of Section 2 of the Act, which restricts attempts to monopolize.
Join our speakers as they discuss the practical implications of this important development, and highlight other notable recent antitrust developments, such as the new prominence of labor markets in merger reviews and criminal enforcement (no poaching!), a focus on interlocking directorates in private equity companies, eroding predictability in merger investigations, and more.
Original source can be found here.