Foreword

• Pages: 7-7

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FOREWORD

This handbook is one in a series of updated handbooks prepared

by me mbers of the Antitrust Law Section of the American Bar

Association. Handbooks are designed to contribute to the principled

discussion of significant policy issues by providing balanced analyses of

different points of view. This handbook considers the law and policy issues

surrounding petitioning immunity for alleged antitrust violations,

commonly referred to as the Noerr-Pennington doctrine, which

exempts from antitrust liability genuine efforts by private parties to

influence government action.

This Handbook builds upon and updates the Section’s 1993 and 2009

monographs on The Noerr-Pennington Doctrine. Neither monograph

considered the Supreme Court’s decision in Octane Fitness, LLC v.

ICON Health & Fitness, Inc., 572 U.S. 545 (2014). Moreover, since

2009, the law has continued to develop, and new issues have come to the

forefront in this fascinating and challenging area of antitrust law.

We hope this volume will be a valuable r esource in the d ebate over

how the antitrust laws should be applied to collective and unilateral

efforts to influence government action for allegedly anticompetitive

ends, as well as a valuable resource in applying the Noerr-Pennington

doctrine.

January 2022 Jonathan Gleklen

Chair, Antitrust Law Section

American Bar Association

2021–22