Unauthorized sellers can damage your brand in many ways. One way is in relation to customer reviews of your products. Unauthorized sellers provide poor customer service, use poor or incorrect content and marketing assets, and...more
Price discrimination under the Robinson-Patman Act (RPA) involves charging different prices to competing buyers for the same product. This was the key issue recently before the Ninth Circuit in U.S. Wholesale Outlet &...more
While government enforcement of the Robinson-Patman Act (the Act) was all but forgotten for nearly two decades, the Federal Trade Commission (the FTC) announced a second investigation over potential price discrimination in...more
Anonymous unauthorized third-party sellers are a nagging problem for most brands. While certain online marketplaces have adopted initial measures to create transparency, such as requiring third-party sellers to list business...more
Introduction - Whether you have a supplier or manufacturer in Asia or distributors in the European Union or South America, all successful product manufacturers do business globally....more
With the rise and dominance of e-commerce and internet marketplaces as a sales channel, many U.S. manufacturers face growing competition from the importation of infringing, cheaper products online. Internet marketplaces have...more
While, historically, government enforcement of the Robinson-Patman Act has been virtually non-existent, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently announced its intention to dust-off the oft-forgotten Act to encourage...more
In this episode of Legally Contented, Wayne Pollock, the founder of the Law Firm Editorial Service, interviews Michael Murphy, a partner at K&L Gates.
Mike focuses his practice on consulting and representing clients on...more
Introduction - Have you ever searched for a brand’s name online only to find that the first link leads to a competitor’s or reseller’s website? This can be a major problem for direct-to-consumer manufacturers and brands....more
2/2/2022
/ Advertising ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Brand ,
Competition ,
Corporate Branding ,
EU ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Keyword Advertising ,
Keyword Search ,
Online Advertisements ,
Online Marketplace ,
Search Engines ,
Trademarks
In a decision made public on 4 May, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice (the Court) determined that an asserted conspiracy claim concerning a price maintenance dispute should proceed to trial, despite Canada’s Competition...more
While the pandemic has forced the closure of dozens of restaurants and retail locations across the country, those still serving their communities just received a helping hand from the Massachusetts Superior Court. Just...more
The economic fallout of COVID-19 is widespread and immense, and few businesses remain unscathed by fundamental changes to consumer spending. No industry may be more affected than traditional department stores and brick and...more
Last week, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Romag Fasteners, Inc. v. Fossil Group, Inc., No. 18-1233,[1] in which it held that the plaintiff in a trademark infringement action need not prove that the defendant acted...more
5/5/2020
/ § 1125(a) ,
§ 1125(c) ,
Appeals ,
Burden of Proof ,
Charge-Filing Preconditions ,
Compensatory Awards ,
Dilution ,
Lanham Act ,
Lost Profits ,
Remand ,
Remedies ,
Romag Fasteners v Fossil ,
SCOTUS ,
Trademark Infringement ,
Trademark Litigation ,
Trademarks ,
Vacated ,
Willful Infringement
Just one month into the new year, Russian courts have already handed down three new criminal judgments for violations of anti-competition laws, a stark contrast to previous years that often passed without a single conviction...more
An Effective Program May Be More Valuable Than Ever Under A New DOJ Policy -
The U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division (“Antitrust Division”) recently announced that it will now consider a company’s antitrust...more
We have been closely following the case of Yutai v. Hainan Provincial Price Bureau, the first dispute involving the legality of a resale price maintenance program brought by China’s antitrust enforcement agency, the State...more
Over 99 years ago, on June 2, 1919, the United States Supreme Court held in U.S. v. Colgate & Co. that the Sherman Act does not prevent a manufacturer from: 1) unilaterally announcing prices at which goods may be advertised...more
Rebates and other volume discounts are a frequent practice in businesses today. While few manufacturers recognize that pure volume discounts and other forms of rebates — unless designed and implemented properly — can run...more
“It’s the economy, stupid” was coined in 1992 by Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign strategist, James Carville, to capture the issue that mattered the most to people. ...more
Today, product manufacturers doing business in China face uncertainty with regard to resale price maintenance (“RPM”). For more than five years, the National Development and Reform Commission (“NDRC”) and Chinese courts have...more
On 24 July 2018, in four separate decisions, the European Commission (“Commission”) levied fines totalling EUR 111 million on four well-known manufacturers of consumer electronic products for imposing fixed or minimum resale...more
8/8/2018
/ Anti-Monopoly ,
Australia ,
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) ,
CCA ,
China ,
Competition ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
Resale Pricing ,
Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) ,
UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)
This upcoming November, the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China and the Shanghai Municipal People’s Government will co-host China’s first-ever International Import Expo (the “Expo”)....more
At first blush, Article 14 of the 2007 Anti-Monopoly Law of the People’s Republic of China (“AML”) appears straightforward — resale price maintenance (“RPM”) is strictly prohibited in China. Not so fast....more
Last month, the Singapore Parliament passed a bill expanding the Competition Commission of Singapore’s regulatory powers. In addition to administering and enforcing Singapore’s Competition Act, the regulatory body will now...more
The Department of Justice (“DOJ”) is currently investigating to what extent colleges and universities communicate with each other about prospective students that apply through the early decision process. While it is still...more