The ABA Antitrust Section’s 2008 Spring Meeting Mock Trial program took a step in addressing resale price maintenance (RPM) under the rule of reason. Every year the Trial Practice Committee (TPC) presents a mock trial at the Section’s Spring Meeting. The program presents experienced counsel trying a case – in a highly compressed format – before a live jury and federal judge.

This year addressed issues including  1) What must be proven to establish that an agreement between a manufacturer and its individual resellers on resale prices violates the rule of reason? 2) How will juries respond to evidence offered to show or rebut a rule of reason violation? and 3) How do the outcomes shape advice to sellers considering such resale price agreements?

Dorsey Partner Michael A. Lindsay's article for the June 2008 edition of The Antitrust Source provides a summary of the mock trial and the real-life lessons it yielded for attorneys (nine real-life lessons for trial lawyers and six real-life lessons specific to antitrust counselors). Lindsay concludes that the mock trial demonstrated RPM programs still run risks for suppliers and that a successful RPM program will be one whose rationale a jury can understand.

Used with permission.  "Resale Price Maintenance: Real Life Lessons from a Mock Trial," The Antitrust Source, June 2008.  This information or any portion thereof may not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or downloaded or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written coonsent of the American Bar Association.