Undoing the Otherwise Perfect Crime: Applying Unjust Enrichment to Consumer Price-Fixing Claims
Posted by Social Science Research Network
Undoing the Otherwise Perfect Crime: Applying Unjust Enrichment to Consumer Price-Fixing Claims – Daniel Richard Karon (Independent)
ABSTRACT: Price-fixing agreements violate federal and state antitrust statutes as well as certain states’ consumer-protection statutes. When price fixing occurs, the price-fixed products’ direct purchasers have standing to pursue claims for their overcharges under the federal antitrust statutes in federal court, but consumers are permitted to allege price-fixing claims only under certain states’ antitrust or consumer-protection statutes. Where state statutory remedies don’t necessarily exist, unjust enrichment is a viable yet commonly misunderstood and oftentimes overlooked remedy that consumers can invoke. But when consumers allege unjust enrichment, price fixers invariably argue its misapplication — claiming that unjust enrichment requires a “direct relationship” or “direct benefit” between the parties. Despite price fixers’ contrary insistence, I describe the antitrust bar, judiciary, consumers, and price fixers’ conventional misunderstandings about unjust enrichment’s application and intended purpose. My article then explains that unjust enrichment’s state-by-state similarity and historical roots actually encourage and support unjust enrichment’s application to consumer price-fixing claims. In this manner, I argue that — through unjust enrichment — all states’ consumers have a powerful tool with which to help stem price fixing and with which to ensure that they derive the privileges and benefits of a free, open, and competitive marketplace.
Featured News
ConocoPhillips Acquires Marathon Oil for $22.5 Billion in Major Energy Sector Consolidation
May 29, 2024 by
CPI
Judge Denies Amazon’s Bid to Dismiss FTC Lawsuit Over Prime Membership Practices
May 29, 2024 by
CPI
Germany and France Advocate for Major EU Competition Reform
May 29, 2024 by
CPI
Equifax Accused of Monopolizing Employment Verification Market in New Suit
May 29, 2024 by
CPI
Car Battery Makers to Challenge EU Cartel Charges in Brussels
May 29, 2024 by
CPI
Antitrust Mix by CPI
Antitrust Chronicle® – Merger Guidelines Retrospective
May 21, 2024 by
CPI
Mergers of Complements
May 21, 2024 by
CPI
Personality Traits, Private Equity, and Merger Analysis
May 21, 2024 by
CPI
The 2023 Merger Guidelines: Lessons in the Importance of Incipiency, Modern Economics, and Monopsony
May 21, 2024 by
CPI
The 2023 Merger Guidelines: Sharpening Merger Analysis
May 21, 2024 by
CPI