North America: Antitrust/Competition Law

The Federal Trade Commission's settlement with Southern Glazer's Wine and Spirits over Robinson-Patman Act violations establishes new benchmarks for price discrimination enforcement, including specific geographic proximity requirements, temporal windows for comparing transactions, and cost-based allowances that could reshape compliance strategies across consumer retail industries.

Former Senator Christopher Dodd and former CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler have filed amicus briefs challenging the Third Circuit's ruling that federal commodities law preempts New Jersey's regulation of sports event contracts. Their central argument contends that Congress enacted Dodd-Frank to regulate financial derivatives, not to transfer sports-betting oversight from states and tribes to the CFTC, raising fundamental questions about whether sports contracts qualify as swaps and the scope of federal preemptio

The Federal Court has interpreted the Competition Act's drip pricing provisions, establishing that concealment and sequence are essential elements of prohibited conduct. This decision in Kuling v. Ticketmaster L.L.C. clarifies that partitioned pricing, where all mandatory fees are displayed simultaneously and clearly, does not constitute drip pricing under Canadian competition law.