price-fixing
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 341 U.S. 384 - Schwegmann Bros. v. Calvert Distillers Corp. · 1951Most cited · 1,499 citing opinions
per se illegality
Fixing minimum prices, like other types of price fixing, is illegal per se.
How the Supreme Court has restated “price-fixing”
Each Supreme Court definition of “price-fixing,” sized by how often later courts cited it. “Change” is measured by wording overlap with earlier definitions — a rough signal, not a semantic judgment.
How often courts cite the cases defining “price-fixing”
Court decisions citing the 5 opinions that defined “price-fixing” — 4,323 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 5 definitions, chronological · 1942–1956
- ORIGINAL
Prices are fixed when they are agreed upon. The fixing of prices by one member of a group pursuant to express delegation, acquiescence, or understanding is just as illegal as the fixing of prices by direct, joint action.
Price fixing, reasonable or unreasonable, is 'unlawful per se.
Price-fixing is per se an unreasonable restraint of trade. It is not for the courts to determine whether in particular settings price-fixing serves an honorable or worthy end. An agreement, shown either by adherence to a price schedule or by proof of consensual action fixing the uniform or minimum price, is itself illegal under the Sherman Act, no matter what end it was designed to serve.
its illegality does not depend on a showing of its unreasonableness, since it is conclusively presumed to be unreasonable. It makes no difference whether the motives of the participants are good or evil; whether the price fixing is accomplished by express contract or by some more subtle means; whether the participants possess market control; whether the amount of interstate commerce affected is large or small; or whether the effect of the agreement is to raise or to decrease prices.