Bundled Discounts After 'Doe v. Abbot Labs'
Mondaq Business Briefing › United States Law Articles in English (2009)
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Bundled Discounts After 'Doe v. Abbot Labs'
Originally published 10 December 2009
Keywords: Section 2, Sherman Act, bundling, Doe, Abbot, bundled discounts For the past several years, US courts have been struggling to articulate the limitations imposed by Section 2 of the Sherman Act on dominant firms seeking to engage in "bundling." Bundling typically involves providing customers a discount when they purchase products spanning several different product lines. The bundled discounts most frequently challenged under Section 2 are those where the bundle includes both "monopoly products," over which the dominant firm arguably wields monopoly power, and "competitive products," relative to which the dominant firm faces competition. The thrust of the antitrust challenge tends to focus on an allegation that the defendant is using its power in the monopoly market to attempt to monopolize the competitive market. Courts have reached drastically different conclusions on the legal standards applicable to this kind of conduct, which makes counseling in this area particularly difficult. The Ninth Circuit recently further complicated the analysis of bundled discounts by sug...See the full content of this document
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