In the United States, antitrust law is a collection of mostly federal laws that regulate the conduct and organization of businesses in order to promote competition and prevent unjustified monopolies. The three main U.S. antitrust statutes are the Sherman Act of 1890, the Clayton Act of 1914, and the Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914. These acts serve three major functions. First, Section 1 of the Sherman Act prohibits price fixing and the operation of cartels, and prohibits other collusive practices that unreasonably restrain trade. Second, Section 7 of the Clayton Act restricts the mergers and acquisitions of organizations that may substantially lessen competition or tend to create a monopoly. Third, Section 2 of the Sherman Act prohibits monopolization.
The list price, also known as the manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP), or the recommended retail price (RRP), or the suggested retail price (SRP) of a product is the price at which its manufacturer notionally recommends that a retailer sell the product.
Rambus Inc. is an American technology company that designs, develops and licenses chip interface technologies and architectures that are used in digital electronics products. The company, founded in 1990, is well known for inventing RDRAM and for its intellectual property-based litigation following the introduction of DDR-SDRAM memory.
Wolseley UK is a supplier of building materials, with trade customers accounting for the largest proportion of its sales. Wolseley are the largest trade specialist in plumbing and heating in the UK. It has retail showrooms around the United Kingdom which are open to the general public.
Rexel is a French company specializing in the distribution of electrical, heating, lighting and plumbing equipment, but also in renewable energies and energy efficiency products and services.
Sysco Corporation is an American multinational corporation involved in marketing and distributing food products, smallwares, kitchen equipment and tabletop items to restaurants, healthcare and educational facilities, hospitality businesses like hotels and inns, and wholesale to other companies that provide foodservice. The company is headquartered in the Energy Corridor district of Houston, Texas. Sysco is the world's largest broadline food distributor; it has more than 600,000 clients in a wide array of fields. Management consulting is also an integral part of their services. The company operates approximately 330 distribution facilities worldwide; providing service to over 90 countries.
The Famous Players–Lasky Corporation was an American motion picture and distribution company formed on June 28, 1916, from the merger of Adolph Zukor's Famous Players Film Company—originally formed by Zukor as Famous Players in Famous Plays—and the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company.
VWR International is an American company involved in the distribution of research laboratory products, with over 1,200,000 items to more than 250,000 customers in North America and Europe. The U.S. division is headquartered in Radnor, Pennsylvania. VWR ranked #91 in 2006, and #77 in 2005, in Forbes list of largest American private companies. Suppliers include Applied Scientific, 3B Scientific Duracell, Kimberly-Clark, Bel-Art Products, and Welch Allyn. VWR primarily serves the government, biotechnology, life science, education, electronics and pharmaceutical sectors. In 2010, the company maintained operations in 25 countries and processed approximately 50,000 order lines daily from a logistical network, which includes 25 strategically located distribution centers.
Ingram Content Group is an American service provider to the book publishing industry, based in La Vergne, Tennessee. It is a subsidiary of Ingram Industries.
Henry Schein, Inc. is an American distributor of health care products and services with a presence in 32 countries. The company is a Fortune World's Most Admired Company and is ranked number one in its industry for social responsibility by Fortune magazine. Ethisphere named Henry Schein as one of the 2023 World's Most Ethical Companies for the 12th consecutive year.
Deborah Platt Majoras is the former chair of the Federal Trade Commission, appointed May 11, 2004, by President George W. Bush and sworn in on August 16, 2004. President Bush had announced his intention to appoint her to the position on July 30, 2004. Majoras is a member of the Republican Party.
The Home Depot Pro, headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, is a wholesale distributor and direct marketer of maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) products for non-industrial businesses in the United States. The Home Depot Pro distributes products such as HVAC, janitorial supplies, plumbing supplies, and security supplies.
International Medical Equipment Collaborative (IMEC) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that provides medical equipment to doctors and nurses working hospitals and clinics in impoverished areas worldwide. IMEC is in North Andover, Massachusetts, United States, where volunteers sort, repair, package and ship donated medical supplies and equipment to international medical personnel. Through partnerships with various humanitarian organizations IMEC has been delivering medical supplies for 14 years. IMEC is known for providing medical supplies that doctors request for their patients.
PSS World Medical, Inc. was an American distributor of medical products, equipment, billing services and pharmaceutical related products to non-hospital healthcare providers. In 2008, the company celebrated its 25th year in business and was named to Forbes 400 Best Big Companies list for the second time. In 2013, the company was purchased by the McKesson Corporation and dissolved. The organization also ranked number 965 on the 2008 Fortune 1000 list of largest businesses, up from 980 the prior year.
Mac Papers, headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, United States, is an industrial distributor of paper and printing supplies, packaging materials and equipment, facility supplies, and office products. The company is the largest supplier of printing paper and envelopes in the Southeast United States, delivering 100,000 tons of paper each year. The company also provides graphic supplies, wide format media and equipment, packaging solutions, and office supplies, as well as custom product and logistics solutions.
MedShare is a national non-profit organization that recovers surplus medical supplies and equipment from U.S. hospitals and manufacturers and redistributes them to needy hospitals in developing countries. They process these donated materials and make them available to under-served hospitals and clinics in two ways: direct shipments to international applicant institutions and supplying medical mission teams with commonly needed medical items.
Dentsply Sirona Inc. is an American dental equipment manufacturer and dental consumables producer that markets its products in over 120 countries. It has factories in 21 countries. The present company is largely the result of a merger in 1993 in which Gendex Corporation acquired Dentsply International Inc. for $590 million.
Patterson Companies, Inc. provides products, technologies, services and business solutions to oral and animal health customers in North America and the U.K. The company was established in 1877 as a dental company. It entered the animal health industry in 2001 with its acquisition of Webster Veterinary and expanded with its 2015 acquisition of Animal Health International, Inc.
Eastman Kodak Co. v. Image Technical Servs., Inc., 504 U.S. 451 (1992), is a 1992 Supreme Court decision in which the Court held that even though an equipment manufacturer lacked significant market power in the primary market for its equipment—copier-duplicators and other imaging equipment—nonetheless, it could have sufficient market power in the secondary aftermarket for repair parts to be liable under the antitrust laws for its exclusionary conduct in the aftermarket. The reason was that it was possible that, once customers were committed to the particular brand by having purchased a unit, they were "locked in" and no longer had any realistic alternative to turn to for repair parts.
A hub-and-spoke conspiracy is a legal construct or doctrine of United States antitrust and criminal law. In such a conspiracy, several parties ("spokes") enter into an unlawful agreement with a leading party ("hub"). The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit explained the concept in these terms:
In a "hub-and-spoke conspiracy," a central mastermind, or "hub," controls numerous "spokes," or secondary co-conspirators. These co-conspirators participate in independent transactions with the individual or group of individuals at the "hub" that collectively further a single, illegal enterprise.
