Long-dormant antitrust theories that pertain to retail have come back to life, and the appellate courts have become increasingly sympathetic to the interests of smaller retailers and suppliers. This session examines major areas of activity in antitrust law relative to retail. Topics include a review of resale price maintenance or so-called “vertical price fixing,” in which a supplier agrees with a reseller on the price the reseller will charge to its own customers; the issues of “unilateral pricing policies” or “Colgate policies” that are often adopted as a safer alternative to resale price maintenance; and the related topic of minimum advertising price (MAP) policies, in which the supplier merely limits the price at which a reseller advertises its product rather than the price at which it sells.

Antitrust Issues in Retail Law