EXCLUSIONARY CONDUCT IN ANTITRUST

American society has a long history of encouraging competition and a long history of abhorring monopoly. Often those two goals are complementary, but not always. Normal competition is fine, but unfair or predatory competition is not. But that easy answer is not particularly helpful. It is often very hard to distinguish the good from the bad. Courts and commentators have struggled hard for many decades to develop rules that separate the lawful conduct of a single firm from the unlawful. That struggle continues today. The authors trace a bit of the history of this struggle, summarize where the courts are today, and then offer a few suggestions for a path going forward.