Insights
Client Alert
Domestic Welfare Trumps International Comity in Strongly Worded Price-Fixing Case
October 18, 2011
BY MICHAEL P.A. COHEN & NOAH B. PINEGAR
In a recent, strongly worded federal antitrust decision, pleas for international comity by Chinas nationalized vitamin industry and its regulatory overseer, Chinas foremost trade industry, fell short in a showdown with U.S. domestic antitrust laws. The case indicates that foreign compulsion defenses are likely to be strictly and narrowly viewed when bumping against the domestic welfare statutes like the Sherman Act. Equally important, the case should signal a caution flag to industries coordinating in nationalized economies exporting to America.