Oklahoma. Statutory Language

Oklahoma Statute 39-23

OKLAHOMA STATUTE

ANTITRUST REFORM ACT

O

KLA

.

S

TAT

. tit. 79, §§ 201 to 212

§ 201. Short title

Sections 1 through 12 of this act may be cited as the “Oklahoma Antitrust

Reform Act.”

§ 202. Definitions

As used in this act:

1. “Attorney General” means the Attorney General of Oklahoma;

2. “Commodity” means any tangible personal property, article, or good;

3. “Person” means a natural person, corporation, partnership, limited liability

company, proprietorship, association, municipal corporation, including any public

trust which has a municipal corporation as its beneficiary, or other political

subdivision of this state, including any public trust which has a political subdivision

as its beneficiary, or any other legal entity, but does not include the State of

Oklahoma, its departments, and its administrative agencies, except the Grand River

Dam Authority and the Oklahoma Municipal Power Authority to the extent that their

goods or services are not regulated by the Oklahoma Corporation Commission; and

4. “Services” means any work or labor, including, but not limited to, work or

labor furnished in connection with the sale, lease, or repair of commodities.

§ 203. Trust in restraint of trade – monopoly of trade – refusal of

access to essential facility – actions by competitors

A. Every act, agreement, contract, or combination in the form of a trust, or

otherwise, or conspiracy in restraint of trade or commerce within this state is hereby

declared to be against public policy and illegal.

B. It is unlawful for any person to monopolize, attempt to monopolize, or

conspire to monopolize any part of trade or commerce in a relevant market within

this state.

C. Without limiting any other section of Title 79 of the Oklahoma Statutes or

applicable sections of Title 17 of the Oklahoma Statutes, it is unlawful for any person

in control of an essential facility to unreasonably refuse to give a competitor or

customer of an entity controlling an essential facility access to it upon reasonable

terms if the effect of such denial is to injure competition. An injured competitor or

customer may bring an action under Section 5 of this act to enforce the provisions of

this section only when such injured competitor or customer does not have a remedy

before the Corporation Commission.

D. As used in this section:

Oklahoma Statute 39-24

1. “Monopolize” means:

a. the possession of monopoly power in the relevant market, and

b. the willful acquisition or maintenance of that power by

exclusionary conduct as distinguished from growth or development as a consequence

of a superior product and/or service, business acumen, or historic accident;

2. “Monopoly power” means the power to control market prices or

exclude competition;

and

3. “Essential facility” means a facility:

a. which is controlled by an entity that possesses monopoly

power,

b. that a competitor would be unable to practically or reasonably

duplicate,

c. the use of which has been unreasonably denied to a

competitor or a customer of the entity that possesses monopoly power, and

d. that it would be feasible to allow the competitor or customer

to use or have access to without causing harm to or unreasonably interfering with the

entity that possesses monopoly power.

§ 204. Unlawful discrimination in price between different purchasers

of commodities

It shall be unlawful for any person engaged in commerce, in the course of such

commerce, either directly or indirectly, to discriminate in price between different

purchasers of commodities of like grade and quality, where either or any of the

purchases involved in such discrimination are in commerce, where such commodities

are sold for use, consumption, or resale within this state, and where the effect of such

discrimination may be substantially to lessen competition or tend to create a

monopoly in any line of commerce, or to injure, destroy, or prevent competition with

any person who either grants or knowingly receives the benefit of such

discrimination, or with customers of either of them; provided, that nothing herein

contained shall prevent differentials which make only due allowance for differences

in the cost of manufacture, sale, or delivery resulting from the differing methods or

quantities in which such commodities are to such purchasers sold or delivered;

provided further, that nothing herein contained shall prevent persons engaged in

selling commodities, wares, or merchandise in commerce from selecting their own

customers in bona fide transactions and not in restraint of trade; provided further, that

nothing herein contained shall prevent price changes from time to time where in

response to changing conditions affecting the market for or the marketability of the

commodities concerned, including, but not limited to, actual or imminent

deterioration of perishable commodities, obsolescence of seasonal commodities,

distress sales under court process, or sales in good faith in discontinuance of business

in the commodities concerned. Nothing herein contained shall prevent a seller

rebutting the prima facie case thus made by showing that his or her lower price to

any purchaser or purchasers was made in good faith to meet an equally low price of a

competitor.