The Three-Legged Stool of U.S. Antitrust Enforcement: A Conversation with Michael Kades

About this episode

Randy Stutz interviews Michael Kades about the dynamics of federal, state, and private antitrust enforcement in the U.S.

In this episode of Ruled by Reason, AAI President Randy Stutz talks with antitrust thought leader Michael Kades about the latest developments at the intersection of federal, state and private antitrust enforcement. The conversation begins with a discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of federal, state and private enforcers in the current enforcement climate (5:11). It then moves to the promise of "public entity litigation," in which private counsel represent federal, state or local government entities in bringing enforcement actions they lack the resources to bring on their own (8:45). Stutz and Kades then discuss strategic complexities and possible "force multipliers" when private counsel represent a governmental agency (11:31), including with respect to bringing cases where the agency's main priority is to develop antitrust doctrine or to shift risk when high-reward cases require large upfront resource commitments (13:33). They also discuss federal claims under Section 4A of the Clayton Act, which allows the government to recover treble damages in its capacity as an injured purchaser, and why such claims may be under-utilized (16:10). The conversation then shifts to merger…

People in this episode

Host: Randy Stutz

Guest: Michael Kades

Topics covered

• U.S. antitrust enforcement
• federal enforcement
• state enforcement
• private enforcement
• public entity litigation
• merger enforcement

Keywords

• antitrust
• enforcement
• mergers
• public entity litigation
• Clayton Act
• federal claims
• state plaintiffs

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: American Antitrust Institute, Clayton Act

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