A New Issue of the Antitrust Law Journal is Out!

I was excited to find a brand-new crisp copy of the Antitrust Law Journal at my San Diego office today. That may seem like an odd statement, but I am admittedly a bit of a law nerd, particularly when it comes to antitrust and competition issues.

Many lawyers today have, unfortunately, lost the enthusiasm for law that they once had in law school or early in their careers. I have not. I love legal ideas and arguments, and the deeper I can explore a subject, the better.

What is great about antitrust and competition law is that unlike many areas of practice, it is well-connected to the academic and economic world. Indeed, I believe that to truly excel in this area, an attorney must follow and even participate in the exchange of ideas that might seem academic. The ideas in the Antitrust Law Journal, and antitrust articles in university law journals, for example, quickly infiltrate their way into agency practice and court decisions.

As a result, many that practice antitrust will periodically publish law-review style articles. I’ve published a couple myself and am working on another this month (for publication this spring) on state-action immunity issues. It is great fun.

For anyone interested, below the text I’ve included a list of the articles in this issue of the Antitrust Law Journal.

I can see several that I will definitely read. The first one that stands out for me is the article by Sean Gates entitled “Antitrust by Analogy: Developing Rules for Loyalty Rebates and Bundled Discounts.” I have a personal interest in loyalty rebates and bundled discount issues from my own cases, publications, and speaking, so I am naturally drawn to this one. In fact, I’ve already paged through it, and it looks great.

William Page addresses the problem of defining concerted action (i.e. conspiracy), which has been a topic of interest for years, but particularly lately, with the publication of Louis Kaplow’s book on the topic (which I am in the process of reading).

Speaking Louis Kaplow, I also notice that he addresses market definition again (he published a significant article on the topic in 2010). I want to see what else he has to say now, a few years later.

Steven Salop has a couple of articles, which are always worth checking out, as he is a master of antitrust economics.

Those are just a few that seem interesting to me at first glance. It looks like a really strong issue this quarter.

Antitrust Law Journal

Volume 79 Issue 1

ARTICLES
Striking the Proper Balance: Redress Under Section 13(b) of the FTC Act
J. Howard Beales III & Timothy J. Muris

Fixing FRAND: A Pseudo-Pool Approach to Standards-Based Patent Licensing
Jorge L. Contreras

Antitrust by Analogy: Developing Rules for Loyalty Rebates and Bundled Discounts
Sean P. Gates

Beyond Refusal to Deal: A Cross-Atlantic View of Copyright, Competition, and Innovation Policies
Ariel Katz & Paul-Erik Veel

vGUPPI: Scoring Unilateral Pricing Incentives in Vertical Mergers
Serge Moresi & Steven C. Salop

Objective and Subjective Theories of Concerted Action
William H. Page

Cross-Market Hospital Mergers: A Holistic Approach
Gregory S. Vistnes & Yianis Sarafidis

Learned Hand, ALCOA, and the Reluctant Application of the Sherman Act
Marc Winerman & William E. Kovacic