Antitrust Issues With Joint Ventures

Joint ventures between big horizontal competitors are allowed, even though at first glance they might seem to violate antitrust laws. For the arrangement to pass muster, the participants need to be able to demonstrate “plausible pro-competitive justifications,” writes Today’s General Counsel columnist Jeffery M. Cross. That would generally mean they can show that the joint venture achieves the kind of efficiencies or synergies that lower prices, increase output or offer greater consumer choice. Certain potential issues need to be watched carefully. One of the most troublesome is a something practitioners call “spillover.”