David Kesselman, founding partner with Kesselman Brantly Stockinger, was recently quoted in the Law360 article, “DOJ Dusts Off Criminal Antitrust Charges To Send A Message.”
The article looks at the first guilty plea in a criminal monopolization case in decades as the president of a Montana paving and asphalt contractor plead guilty to attempted monopolization charges. This case was brought under Section 2 of the Sherman Act, as opposed to the more commonly used Section 1, and is part of the DOJ continued efforts to “push antitrust enforcement into new and forgotten areas.”
Kesselman commented to Law360 that while the case is significant, it also involves allegations of a market allocation scheme, which is the type of activity that could be prosecuted under Section 1 as a criminal matter in certain circumstances. What sets this case apart from the more common Section 1 cases, he said, is that there never appears to have been an actual agreement.
“If there had been an actual agreement or conspiracy … prosecution under Section 1 in that circumstance would certainly have been within the norm,” Kesselman said. “Without an actual agreement, the government decided to prosecute the defendant under an attempted monopolization claim under Section 2.”
Read the full Law360 article here (subscription required):
https://www.law360.com/ competition/ articles/ 1546186?utm_source=shared-articles&utm_ medium=email&utm_ campaign=shared-articles