Preface

• Pages: 15-16

xv

PREFACE

When manufacturers conspire to fix prices, the injury does not

end with the people who buy directly from the conspirators—or so

many think. In Illinois Brick Co. v. Illinois,1 however, the U.S.

Supreme Court decided that these “indirect purchasers”—that is,

purchasers who buy from the alleged conspirators’ customers, rather

than from the conspirators themselves—had no cause of action under

federal law.2 In nearly forty years since that decision, courts,

legislatures, practitioners, academics, and the American Bar

Association itself all have struggled with the ramifications of this

decision. And in California v. ARC America Corp.,3 the Supreme

Court confirmed that the States could provide a different result under

their own laws and permit indirect purchasers to recover.4

As matters now stand, 27 states (23 by statute and another four

by case law) permit indirect purchaser claims in one form or another.

Yet the jurisprudence for these claims is far from fully developed.

This Handbook seeks to explain both the framework for indirect

purchaser claims and the issues that commonly arise in indirect

purchaser litigation.

Dozens of private practitioners and economists contributed to

this project. In addition to the editor, Elizabeth A. N. Haas, we wish

to give particular thanks to Phillip C. Babler, Andrew J. Barragry,

Adam E. Crawford and Kate E. Gehl whose enormous contributions

and repeated reviews were essential to the completion of this project.

We also gratefully acknowledge the work of the following:

Dominique Alepin

Vandy Howell

Nate Asher

Phillip Babler

Samid Hussain

Kathryn Kuhn

Jim Babst

Brent Landau

Jeff Bank

Jason Leckerman

Pete Barile

Tiffany Lee

Andrew Barragry

Ethan Litwan

Eugene Benick

Stacey Anne Mahoney

Jon Breeding

Michelle Mantine

Courtney Byrd

Michael McLellan

1. 432 U.S. 720 (1977).

2. Id. at 737, 746-47.

3. 490 U.S. 93 (1989).

4. Id. at 101-02