Antitrust and trade regulation law involves issues arising in the supply, pricing, and distribution of goods and services. Antitrust is always an issue in contracts that seek to limit a customer’s use of products, in marketing and sales efforts, in dealing with competitors in trade groups, in collaborations or joint ventures with competitors, and when parties seek to directly or indirectly affect availability of goods, pricing by others, or competitive bidding.
Non-compete agreements and over-reaching claims to trade secrets or confidential information also involve antitrust issues. Mergers and acquisitions can give rise to antitrust issues depending on size and market share. Below-cost pricing, discriminatory pricing, and many other marketing and sales activities are governed by antitrust and trade regulation laws.
We have experience before the Federal Trade Commission and the US Justice Department – Antitrust Division. We have established antitrust compliance plans. We have counseled agricultural clients on maintaining their Capper-Volstead exemption and have litigated major Capper-Volstead cases.
We counsel with businesses on the various organization structure of their distribution chain. These vary from using distributors to multi-level sales and franchising. Our focus is on helping clients understand the regulatory framework, the costs involved in the various sale structures, and whether their product can achieve profitability under the various structures available. We write the contracts, policies, and plans that implement these marketing strategies.
