Oct 9, 2026 · 11 min · 7 segments
Why is Price Fixing illegal even if it feels necessary to the industry? Join host Gwendolyn Lindsay Cooley and guests Kennedy Harmon, a 3L at George Washington University Law School, and Alexandria…
Gwendolyn Lindsay CooleyHost
Alexandria Leon-BernardGuest
Kennedy HarmonGuestThere is also a portion of the decision that discusses the involvement, such as it was, of the government in the price discussions.
But I just want our listeners to know when you are reading this decision, which I'm sure you will, you will also remember the Parker v.
Brown is decided later, partly because Socony-Vacuum leaves this gap about that gauzy cloak of government involvement in a private price fixing arrangement.
It is the case that gives price fixing its famously broad functional definition.
Now, I will note that later cases tell us more about what constitutes an agreement.
For example, parallel pricing without more isn't an antitrust violation, nor can defendants escape the rule merely because their mechanism was indirect.
Here, buying surplus gasoline so that it would no longer push the spot market price down.
Once the court has identified a horizontal price fixing agreement, the trial does not become an economic referendum on whether the price was too high, whether the defendants controlled the whole market, or whether the arrangement worked perfectly, or even if they had benevolent motives.
As Justice Douglas put it, "Any combination which tampers with price structures is engaged in unlawful activity." And I think all three of us have said that now, so you really should understand that.
[laughs] There is an important Antitrust 101 caveat, and that is that modern courts have to characterize the agreement correctly to look at, for example, is this a joint venture, or are there other considerations? But that is why this case remains assigned almost ninety years later in law school, because it teaches both the extraordinary force of the per se rule and the importance of identifying exactly what the competitors agreed to do.
There is also a portion of the decision that discusses the involvement, such as it was, of the government in the price discussions.
But I just want our listeners to know when you are reading this decision, which I'm sure you will, you will also remember the Parker v.
Brown is decided later, partly because Socony-Vacuum leaves this gap about that gauzy cloak of government involvement in a private price fixing arrangement.
It is the case that gives price fixing its famously broad functional definition.
Now, I will note that later cases tell us more about what constitutes an agreement.
For example, parallel pricing without more isn't an antitrust violation, nor can defendants escape the rule merely because their mechanism was indirect.
Here, buying surplus gasoline so that it would no longer push the spot market price down.
Once the court has identified a horizontal price fixing agreement, the trial does not become an economic referendum on whether the price was too high, whether the defendants controlled the whole market, or whether the arrangement worked perfectly, or even if they had benevolent motives.
As Justice Douglas put it, "Any combination which tampers with price structures is engaged in unlawful activity." And I think all three of us have said that now, so you really should understand that.
[laughs] There is an important Antitrust 101 caveat, and that is that modern courts have to characterize the agreement correctly to look at, for example, is this a joint venture, or are there other considerations? But that is why this case remains assigned almost ninety years later in law school, because it teaches both the extraordinary force of the per se rule and the importance of identifying exactly what the competitors agreed to do.
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