(DOWNLOAD) "Roche V. Empagran. (Application of US Antitrust Law in Foreign Countries)" by Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy # eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Roche V. Empagran. (Application of US Antitrust Law in Foreign Countries)
- Author : Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy
- Release Date : January 22, 2004
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 266 KB
Description
A central challenge of modern antitrust law is determining the extent to which U.S. antitrust law applies to actors in foreign countries. (1) Although foreign violations of U.S. antitrust law seem beyond the proper sphere of U.S. courts' subject matter jurisdiction, (2) anticompetitive behavior in foreign countries affects consumers in the U.S., (3) suggesting that the U.S. has an interest in adjudicating these issues. Last Term, in Roche v. Empagran, (4) the Supreme Court held that where antitrust violations cause similar but independent harms to domestic and international purchasers, those international purchasers cannot bring suit in U.S. courts. (5) However, the Court's assumption that the harms were independent was fallacious and thus the Court failed to establish a workable standard for determining when U.S. courts have jurisdiction over foreign antitrust violations. (6) Roche arose out of a class action filed on behalf of both domestic and foreign vitamin purchasers against vitamin manufacturers alleging a price-fixing conspiracy designed to raise prices for vitamins both domestically and abroad. (7) The manufacturers moved to dismiss the complaint of the foreign purchasers (8) because their vitamin purchases occurred outside the United States and thus were not part of U.S. commerce and did not fall under the ambit of U.S. antitrust law. (9) The district court agreed and dismissed the foreign claims. (10) The district court applied the Foreign Trade Antitrust Improvement Act of 1982, (11) which exempts commerce with foreign nations from U.S. antitrust jurisdiction when such actions do not injure domestic interests. (12) The court then found that none of the exceptions to the FTAIA applied and thus concluded that it lacked jurisdiction over the foreign purchasers' claims. (13) The domestic purchasers then separated their claims, leaving only the foreign purchasers to appeal. (14)