Preface

• Pages: 15-16

xv

PREFACE

The Price Discrimination Handbook is intended to provide a

comprehensive resource regarding price discrimination law in the United

States and in jurisdictions located throughout the world, and is addressed

both to practitioners who spend significant time on price discrimination

issues as well as the general practitioner seeking guidance on these

issues. The Pricing Conduct Committee of the ABA Section of Antitrust

Law closely monitors developments in price discrimination law and

works to keep committee members and other interested practitioners up

to date through a variety of programs and publications. This handbook is

our effort to gather some of the most important information on

compliance with price discrimination laws in a single reference that can

be used to evaluate pricing programs and policies that affect U.S.

interstate commerce, apply in a single U.S. state, or that raise potential

issues in one or more foreign jurisdictions.

The handbook is divided into four chapters. Chapter I provides an

overview of the theory and purposes of price discrimination laws. It

defines and outlines the different forms of price discrimination, and

explains the continuing debate over whether laws regulating price

discrimination are compatible with the economic and legal underpinnings

of other antitrust laws. Chapter II provides an in-depth discussion of the

Robinson-Patman Act (RPA), the principal federal price discrimination

law. The chapter explains the law itself, how it relates to other antitrust

jurisprudence, such as predatory pricing law, the elements of an RPA

claim, and the defenses available to a party accused of price

discrimination. Chapter III explores the various approaches to price

discrimination law among the states, which vary in their focus. The

chapter also discusses state price discrimination laws that apply to

particular industries, including motor vehicle and motor fuel sales, dairy

and other agricultural products, and alcoholic beverages, and who may

enforce the various state price discrimination laws.

Chapter IV explores price discrimination laws in other countries in

the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Africa. The chapter provides a global