Resale price maintenance involves agreements between manufacturers and downstream distributors that set the downstream price of the product, either at a minimum price or a maximum price. Antitrust law, until recently, condemned these vertical price arrangements as illegal per se. The Supreme Court, recognizing that maximum resale prices may enhance competition and improve consumer welfare, has held that this practice is now to be assessed under the rule of reason for its actual competitive effects. Agreements on minimum prices, however, continue to be subject to the per se rule. Economic analysis reveals the conditions under which resale price maintenance can enhance consumer welfare and where it can harmconsumerwelfare. Because there are so many circumstances in which resale pricemaintenance promotes interbrand competition, the practice should be assessed in all situations under the rule of reason, the same way in which nonprice vertical contracts are analyzed.

Theoretical discussions among competition lawyers and economists on the approach to Resale resale Price price Maintenance maintenance (RPM) and Vertical vertical Territorial territorial Restrictions restrictions (VTR) have often caused controversy. However, commentators agree that there is a lack of comprehensive study surrounding the topic. This book explores these two forms of anticompetitive conduct from legal, historical, economical, and theoretical points of view, focusing on the EU and US experiences. The author expertly goes beyond the current legal practice to explain, among other things, what approach should apply to RPM and VTR, and why RPM and VTR are introduced in situations where procompetitive theories would not make economic sense, or do not apply in practice. The book takes account of economic values, such as efficiency and welfare, as well as other values, such as freedom, fairness and free competition. Scholars and students of law will find the book’s depth of legal, economic and historical analysis to be a rich contribution to the scholarship. This book will also be of use to EU and US practitioners, and enforcers dealing with RPM and VTR cases.