Microsoft, AT&T, Standard Oil, and …. the Globetrotters? The Globetrotters just might join this list of well known antitrust defendants. The Harlem Ambassadors, a rival exhibition basketball squad, have filed a complaint with the FTC concerning the Globetrotters’ use of “exclusivity windows” in leases with local arenas, which effectively prevent competitors from playing in the same arena around the same time as the Globetrotters. CNN Money has the story here.

Read the full piece here.

Another 8-0 antitrust decision from SCOTUS. Very interesting. For those of you who have not been following, the Court rejected the longstanding, but almost uniformly criticized, presumption that patents confer market power for the purpose of antitrust analysis. WSJ Law Blog sums up the facts here, concluding with a quote from Steve Sunshine that the trio of cases this term “harmoniz[e] antitrust law presumptions with the economic law and policy that’s been pervasive over the past ten-to-fifteen years.â€? That sounds right.

Read the full piece here.

SCOTUS’ Dagher opinion is indeed good news. For those unfamiliar with the case, the Ninth Circuit held that the pricing policy of two joint ventures between Shell and Texaco were per se illegal under the Sherman Act. As it stood, the Ninth Circuit’s analysis threatened per se antitrust liability for joint ventures engaging in the unremarkable practice of setting prices for their own practices. Judge Fernandez’ dissent describes the ruling more creatively, arguing that it created a “exotic beast, no less strange than a manticore, roaming the business world.” After SCOTUS’ 8-0 reversal, the exotic beast roams no longer.

Read the full piece here. 

The NCAA is no stranger to defending antitrust suits. Remember Maurice Clarett? How about the NIT? Tom Farrey of ESPN the Magazine brought my attention to a new and very interesting antitrust suit filed last week in Los Angeles on the theory that the NCAA has illegally conspired to prohibit member colleges from offering athletic scholarships covering the “full cost” of attendance. Apparently, the NCAA fixes a standard scholarship package, called “grant-in-aid,” which is approximately $2,500 less than the official cost of attendance.

Read the full piece here.

David Fischer at Antitrust Review posts an excerpt from Information Resources, Inc.’s (IRI) press release issued to explain the recent settlement of their ten year long litigation against VNU (A.C. Nielsen, IMS Health, and Dun and Bradstreet). IRI’s claims were based on an “above cost” bundling theory that Thom has discussed in detail here. In that post, Thom expressed optimism (like me) about Justice Alito’s influence on the Supreme Court’s antitrust jurisprudence in large part because of his sensible dissent in LePage’s. It looks like we do not have to wait long to for evidence of that influence.

Read the full piece here.

Warren Grimes of the American Antitrust Institute (and Southwestern Law School) defends the Korea Fair Trade Commission’s recent Microsoft decision holding that Microsoft abused its dominant position by bundling Instant Messenger and Windows Media Player technologies to its operating system, and its order that Microsoft must sell unbundled versions. Grimes central point is that not we should expect such divergent views in an antitrust environment of “world federalism,” but on that the KFTC was in good company in viewing Microsoft’s bundling practices as anticompetitive.

Read the full piece here. 

Dave Hoffman over at Concurring Opinions asks: “Is Apple Exploiting Consumer Irrationality?” Dave is worried that consumers’ continuing iPod purchases may be irrational in the face of evidence that many iPod’s fail within their one year warranty period or shortly after, and that this strategy might explain Apple’s “growing market strength.” How likely are consumer biases to explain Apple’s success? In short, not very.

Read the full piece here. 

My friend and co-author, Wes Hartmann (Stanford Graduate School of Business) has posted a very interesting paper with Ricard Gil (UC Santa Cruz Economics) entitled, “Airing your Dirty Laundry: Social Networks, Reputational Capital, and Vertical Integration.” As the title implies, Hartmann and Gil examine the role of social networks (ethnic-based networks in this case) on the “make or buy” decision. The abstract is here…

Read the full piece here.

Thom recently posted about Judge Alito’s comments on the recent Lepage’s decision involving bundled discounts offered to retailers. There is presently much debate among antitrust scholars regarding the proper treatment of “above-cost” price cuts, such as the bundled discounts in Lepage’s. The anticompetitive theory in these cases is not that discounts mask what is effectively “predatory pricing.” Rather, the theory is that the payments will deprive rivals from achieving minimum efficient scale for a period of time long enough to prohibit meaningful competition.

Read the full piece here.