Industries & Issues: Monopolies & Vertical Restraints

Perhaps no areas of antitrust law reflect the different assumptions and philosophies of the Chicago and post-Chicago antitrust schools more than monopolization and vertical restraints. Whereas the Chicago school sees little risk from exclusionary conduct, even by monopolists, and even less risk from vertical intrabrand distribution restraints, post-Chicago and other scholars recognize that raising rivals' costs can frequently be a profitable strategy for dominant firms and that intrabrand vertical restraints, such as resale price maintenance, may well harm consumers. The AAI believes the U.S. agencies should take a more aggressive enforcement posture towards exclusionary conduct by dominant firms and renew antitrust's historic skepticism of durable monopolies. For an overview of AAI's positions, read the Monopoly, Exclusion and Intrabrand Competition chapter from AAI's report "The Next Antitrust Agenda."