Antitrust Pitfalls for Manufacturer-Imposed Requirements

Structuring RPM Provisions and Overcoming Antitrust Risk in Territory and Customer Restrictions

Recording of a 90-minute CLE webinar with Q&A

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Conducted on Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Recorded event now available

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Course Materials

This CLE course will provide best practices to counsel for manufacturers and others in the distribution chain for developing reasonable price, territory and customer restrictions. The panel will give special consideration of resale price maintenance agreements in state, federal and international jurisdictions.

Description

The Supreme Court's adoption of a rule of reason standard in Leegin v. PSKS upended nearly 100-year precedent that resale price maintenance (RPM) agreements are per se illegal. Nonetheless, some states have broken ranks with the ruling, creating new compliance challenges for businesses.

With the uncertainty of differing state, federal and international laws, regulations and rulings, counsel to manufacturers and others in the distribution chain must carefully analyze the market and the potential impact of an RPM agreement to determine whether it will be enforceable.

Manufacturer restrictions can also go beyond price considerations, including conditions that affect territory and customers that may be pursued by dealers. Counsel must tread carefully in advising reasonable limits and ensuring a company's decision is unilateral and not a collective agreement with competitors.

Listen as our experienced panel of antitrust attorneys examines the antitrust risks that manufacturers face when imposing restrictions upon the resale of their products. The panel will present a guide to navigating the unsettled state RPM law following the Supreme Court's Leegin decision, as well as best practices for manufacturers for introducing limits on retailers they will do business with, and how and where their products may be sold.

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Outline

  1. Pricing restrictions
    1. RPM and the Leegin decision
    2. State treatment
    3. International
  2. Territory and customer restrictions
  3. Considerations for manufacturer restrictions upon dealers

Benefits

The panel will review these and other key questions:

  • How are federal courts and state and antitrust authorities currently responding to RPM challenges?
  • How can businesses and their counsel best cope with the conflicting treatment of RPM agreements?
  • When are franchised dealers with exclusive territories likely to be deemed impermissible restrictions on competition?

Following the speaker presentations, you'll have an opportunity to get answers to your specific questions during the interactive Q&A.

Faculty

Breed, Logan
Logan M. Breed
Partner
Hogan Lovells

Mr. Breed concentrates his practice on antitrust clearance of mergers and acquisitions, antitrust litigation, and...  |  Read More

James M. Burns
James M. Burns
Member
Dickinson Wright

He has focused his practice on antitrust law for over 25 years. During that time, he has litigated antitrust and...  |  Read More

Adrian Emch
Adrian Emch
Partner
Hogan Lovells

Mr. Emch is a specialist in competition/antitrust law and has broad experience in all aspects of competition law,...  |  Read More

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