Hub-and-Spoke Collusion or Vertical Exclusion? Identifying the Rim in Hub-and-Spoke Conspiracies

Hub-and-spoke conspiracies, while less common than traditional forms of collusion, raise important economic questions and pose challenges for courts and practitioners. The involvement of a vertically related third party – the hub – often complicates the assessment of anticompetitive agreements among horizontal competitors. In these arrangements, the alleged agreement among the spokes often relies on the hub to facilitate mutual understanding, which may arise even in the absence of direct co