Many areas of competition policy and law intersect supply chain management. Describing recent developments in supply chains and supply chain management, the authors examine their implications for competition policy and law involving resale price maintenance – a controversial vertical restraint affecting $300 billion in U.S. sales annually. Their findings augment economic understanding of resale price maintenance and thereby offer potential to advance competition policy and antitrust law.
By Gregory T. Gundlach & Riley T. Krotz[1]
I. INTRODUCTION
Competition policy and antitrust law overlap supply chain management (hereafter “SCM”) in many areas. In addition to addressing dealings between organizations occupying the same level of a supply chain (e.g., manufacturer to manufacturer), competition policy and antitrust law also addresses dealings between organizations occupying different levels of the supply chain (e.g., manufacturer to retailer). These dealings may involve arrangements with upstream and downstream organizations in a supply chain. In some circumstances, they involve agreements that restrict the ability of one or both organizations to freely compete. Commonly referred to as “vertical restraints” in competition policy and antitrust law, these restrictions include a variety of supply chain-based business practices. Vertical “price” restraints limit the capacity of another organization, operating at a different level in the s
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