Dorsey partner Michael Lindsay discussed in the Canadian International Lawyer the gap between Canadian and U.S. resale price maintenance law. Under Canadian law, any agreement permitting a manufacturer, supplier, or licensor to control the price at which others would resell its products is prohibited. For nearly 100 years, this prohibition was mirrored in the United States by the so-called Dr. Miles rule, which stipulated that any such price control agreement was "per se" illegal. Ten years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated that rule for maximum prices, and recently, in Leegin v. PSKS,  the Supreme Court overturned the "per se" illegal rule for minimum price agreements.

Lindsay suggests that Canadian companies doing business in the United States may want to reconsider their entire U.S. distribution model. For example, a Canadian supplier could now stipulate that its U.S. distribution agreements prohibit reselling the supplier's product below the supplier's minimum suggested price. At the same time, he cautions that Canadian companies take into account the risks of having a different a distribution approach in the United States from the approach they take in Canada. In particular, he counsels Canadian suppliers to make sure that employees do not inadvertently follow U.S. legal principles in dealing with Canadian resellers.

"U.S. Distribution Contracts: Resale Price Maintenance and The World After Leegin" was published by the Canadian International Lawyer, October 2007.