Supreme Court Holds Price Squeezes Generally Cannot be Challenged Under the U.S. Antitrust Laws

The attached alert memo discusses the Supreme Court’s decision this week in Pacific Bell v. linkLINE Communications, in which the Court held that, where a defendant has no independent antitrust duty to deal with its would-be competitors, the U.S. antitrust laws do not forbid “price squeezes,” which arise when a firm sets wholesale prices at a level that results in its wholesale customers being unable to compete with it at the retail level.