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Dec. 12, 2015
Libations and Lawsuits, Madison, Wisconsin
This is an analysis of antitrust litigations in various capacities as they may or may
not apply to the following use case. The summary of the case that is detailed below.
Madison Wisconsin, a college town well populated with university students, has a
variety of bars open late to accomodate the populace. However, Madison town officials
believe that there is a problem amongst the students; that problem would be defined
most aptly as “over-consumption”. It is reported that bars in the area have a propensity
to over-serve college students. Town officials believe that the rate of over-consumption
amongst the students might have something to do with late night, low price drink
specials put on offer by bars that encourage a high rate of indulgence amongst the
general college students.
What then followed was an official planned ordinance to ban all drink specials in
the Madison area, the drafting of which began in 2012. Feeling pressure from the
government to modify their beverage policies, local bars consented to putting a halt to
their established drink promotions, as long as they ran past 8 pm. This resulted in many
a put-out, libation-loving Universtiy of Wisconsin student, who then found themselves in
the position of pursuing legal action against the local bar owners association on the
account of violations against anti-trust laws. (4)
The plaintiffs in this case are the University of Wisconsin students. They’re
filing lawsuits against the local bar owners association for violating antitrust laws. In
order to determine the validity of their suit, we must first examine and define what
antitrust laws are. Antitrust laws are acts put in place by Congress in the aim of
“preserving free and unfettered competition as the rule of trade” (Sherman Act, 1890).
There are three main arms of antitrust laws, set into play by three acts. The Sherman
Act of 1890 was the first antitrust law to be formed, with the goal of eliminating attempts
of collusion and disbanding monopolies as they arose. This act also outlawed price
fixing, bid rigging, customer allocation. The other two acts, the Clayton act and Federal
Trade Commission Act, concerned themselves mainly with the issues of mergers and
acquisitions that work against equity of competition and unfair interstate competition
