Chapter I. Introduction

• Pages: 1-4

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1

Joint ventures – often referred to as “competitor collaborations” –

have become increasingly popular over the last decade, both

domestically and internationally.1 Indeed, actual and potential

competitors formed joint ventures with such increasing frequency during

the late 1980s and early 1990s that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

and the Department of Justice (DOJ) formed their own collaboration to

examine the antitrust principles that should be utilized to review such

ventures.2 In April 2000 the DOJ and the FTC produced the Antitrust

Guidelines for Collaborations Among Competitors (Collaboration

Guidelines), the outcome of their Joint Venture Project.3

Prior to the promulgation of the Collaboration Guidelines, the courts

and agencies often struggled over the standards that should be used to

review business arrangements between competitors that did not clearly

fall within either the prohibition of per se unlawful activity or arms-

length contractual arrangements.4 Additional problems were caused by

1 See, e.g., Thomas A. Piraino, Jr., A Proposed Antitrust Approach to

Collaborations Among Competitors, 86 IOWA L. REV. 1137 (2001); Jon G.

Shepherd, Editor’s Note, Symposium: Antitrust Scrutiny of Joint Ventures,

66 ANTITRUST L.J. 641, 641 (1998); Symposium, Antitrust, Joint Ventures,

and Electric Utility Restructuring, 64 ANTITRUST L.J. 267 (1996);

Symposium, Joint Ventures, Including Strategic Alliances, to Develop

Computer Technology, 61 ANTITRUST L.J. 859 (1993).

2 See Comment and Hearings on Joint Venture Project, 62 Fed. Reg. 22,945

(Apr. 28, 1997) (“Project Hearings”). The Joint Venture Project actually

grew out of the Fall 1995 Federal Trade Commission Hearings on global

and innovation-based competition, id. at 22,946, where a “substantial

majority of participants cited antitrust law as it applies to joint ventures” to

be the area that “seemed least clear and . . . most out of date.” FTC

Chairman Robert Pitofsky, Opening Statement, Hearings on the Joint

Venture Project (June 2, 1997).

3 U.S. Dep’t of Justice & Federal Trade Comm’n, Antitrust Guidelines for

Collaborations Among Competitors, reprinted in 4 Trade Reg. Rep. (CCH)

¶ 13,161 (Apr. 12, 2000), available at http://www.ftc.gov/os/2000/

04/ftcdojguidelines.pdf [hereinafter Collaboration Guidelines].

4 See, e.g., Charles D. Weller, A “New” Rule of Reason from Justice