Does the Packers and Stockyards Act Require Antitrust Harm?

8 Pages Posted: 10 Jan 2011

See all articles by Herbert Hovenkamp

Herbert Hovenkamp

University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School; University of Pennsylvania - The Wharton School

Date Written: January 9, 2011

Abstract

The Packers and Stockyards Act was enacted in 1921. Congress was plainly influenced by the 1919 publication of a Federal Trade Commission Report on the meatpacking industry. Consistent with the FTC’s jurisdiction and concerns, the Report dealt with deceptive and unfair practices as well as practices that were believed to violate the antitrust laws. The language of the PSA does much the same, mixing the two. Of its seven specific prohibitions, three contain antitrust-like provisions requiring a lessening of competition. Two others reach unfair and tort-like conduct without any requirement of harm to competition. The remaining two reach both anticompetitive and tortuous conspiracies. One of the conspiracy provisions plainly reaches price fixing and market division agreements. The other plainly reaches a full range of tortious and anticompetitive conduct without stating a harm to competition requirement.

This brief essay considers the wisdom of holdings in half a dozen Circuit Courts of Appeal that even those sections of the statute that do not explicitly require harm to competition must be interpreted as if they did.

Keywords: antitrust, packers and stockyards act, competition, harm, federal trade commission, statutory interpretation

Suggested Citation

Hovenkamp, Herbert, Does the Packers and Stockyards Act Require Antitrust Harm? (January 9, 2011). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1737440 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1737440

Herbert Hovenkamp (Contact Author)

University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School ( email )

3501 Sansom Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
United States
319-512-9579 (Phone)

University of Pennsylvania - The Wharton School ( email )

3641 Locust Walk
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6365
United States

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