US Competition Law and Policy (LAWS70320)

While the legislation governing competition (antitrust) law differs across jurisdictions, the methods of analysis have become very similar. The United States (US) has the longest and deepest experience with the application of such legislation. Every competition lawyer will benefit from familiarity with the United States experience and analytical methods. The lecturer is one of the foremost authorities on antitrust in the US. This subject will provide students with a sophisticated grasp of US antitrust law, an appreciation of the legal and economic modes of analysis employed in US cases and familiarity with the rules of procedure and evidence in US antitrust litigation. He has also acted as an expert witness in several of Australia’s most important trade practices cases and is well-placed to ensure students understand both the commonalities and differences between United States and Australian competition law.

Using United States antitrust cases as the primary vehicle for learning, principal topics include:

• Horizontal restraints: price-fixing and related conduct; information exchange and oligopolistic conduct, group boycotts and related conduct
• Vertical restraints, including intra-brand restraints (eg resale price maintenance and exclusive dealing) and interbrand restraints
• Monopoly, including market definition, predatory pricing, refusal to deal and other monopolising conduct
• Mergers, including the basic paradigm; the approach taken under the Department of Justice merger guidelines, recent cases and conglomerate and vertical mergers.

The syllabus will cover early foundational cases (eg Alcoa and Du Pont in the case of market definition; Aspen Skiing in the case of refusal to deal; Philadelphia Bank in the case of mergers) as well as more recent cases (eg Microsoft in the case of monopolising conduct; Staples and Oracle in the case of mergers; Leegin in the case of RPM; Twombly in the case of price-fixing).