Franchising forms a major sector of the economy, and businesses engaged in selling goods and services through franchise systems routinely confront advertising, pricing, distribution, and other issues requiring an understanding of the antitrust laws. This important resource will give the practicing lawyer a detailed overview of the federal antitrust laws as they apply to franchising. Organized by issue—pricing and advertising, customer and territorial restrictions, exclusive dealing, purchasing constraints, and joint franchisee action—to enhance its usefulness to practitioners, this book will prove an invaluable aid to practitioners advising clients on antitrust issues involved in franchising, whether they are selling through a business format or product distribution franchise.
This book covers the following topics :
– Chapter I offers an introduction to and overview of the antitrust laws.
– Chapter II looks at pricing issues, from resale price maintenance, to cooperative advertising, to price discrimination.
– Chapter III considers territorial and customer restrictions.
– Chapter IV reviews exclusive dealing and exclusive appointments.
– Chapter V addresses tying issues and vendor rebates.
– Chapter VI provides an overview of the antitrust law applicable to joint conduct by franchisees.
In addition, the application of antitrust law to business format franchises in particular has given rise to a specialized body of law within general antitrust jurisprudence to the extent, for example, franchisors have required franchisees to purchase from designated sources. Those developments are described in detail in this volume.
