The Fine Line Between Collaboration and Collusion: Comment for the DOJ-FTC’s Request for Guidance on Collaborations Among Competitors
Abstract
This comment, submitted in response to the DOJ’s and FTC’s request for public input on collaborations among competitors, offers two recommendations for the revised guidelines. First, the agencies should include a dedicated discussion of trade associations and joint negotiations, given that roughly one-third of cartel cases historically arise from association activity and that key questions—group boycotts and the conduct of delegated leadership—remain underdeveloped in existing guidance. Second, the agencies should reaffirm a market-based, consumer-welfare framework for evaluating collaborations, pushing back against the growing movement to grant antitrust carve-outs for favored industries pursuing public-interest objectives.
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