''State Oil Co. v. Khan'', 522 U.S. 3 (1997), was a decision by the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

,. which held that vertical maximum

price fixing Price fixing is an anticompetitive agreement between participants on the same side in a market to buy or sell a product, service, or commodity only at a fixed price, or maintain the market conditions such that the price is maintained at a given ...

was not inherently unlawful, thereby overruling a previous Supreme Court decision, ''

Albrecht v. Herald Co. Albrecht ("noble", "bright") is a given name or surname of German origin and may refer to: First name *Albrecht Agthe, (1790–1873), German music teacher * Albrecht Altdorfer, (c. 1480–1538) German Renaissance painter * Albrecht Becker, (1906� ...

'', 390 U.S. 145 (1968).. However, the Court concluded that " overruling ''Albrecht'', the Court does not hold that all vertical maximum price fixing is per se lawful, but simply that it should be evaluated under the rule of reason, which can effectively identify those situations in which it amounts to anticompetitive conduct."

Background

The 1968 decision in ''Albrecht v. Herald Co.'' held that wholesalers could not require franchisees and retailers of their products to sell items at a certain price. Advertisements regarding sales, therefore, always included the language "available at participating retailers only." The case before the court in 1997 involved a

gasoline Gasoline (; ) or petrol (; ) (see ) is a transparent, petroleum-derived flammable liquid that is used primarily as a fuel in most spark-ignited internal combustion engines (also known as petrol engines). It consists mostly of organi ...

wholesaler and Chicago service station. State Oil Co. attempted to force the gasoline station owner, Barkat Khan, to sell State Oil's product at certain prices. Khan resisted and filed suit, claiming a violation of anti-trust law. Khan won his case in the

United States Court of Appeals United may refer to: Places * United, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community * United, West Virginia, an unincorporated community Arts and entertainment Films * ''United'' (2003 film), a Norwegian film * ''United'' (2011 film), a BBC Two f ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, presided over by Judge

Richard Posner Richard Allen Posner (; born January 11, 1939) is an American jurist and legal scholar who served as a federal appellate judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit from 1981 to 2017. A senior lecturer at the University of Chic ...

. Posner, however, mocked the Supreme Court's 1968 ruling on the matter in his decision, calling it "unsound when decided," "moth-eaten," and "increasingly wobbly" in application. Posner nevertheless abided by the Supreme Court's earlier decision, saying that it was the law until the Court overruled it.

Decision

Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote the unanimous opinion for the Court, overturning the previous case. She noted Posner was correct to rule for ''stare decisis'', writing "it is this Court’s prerogative alone to overrule one of its precedents." However, she wrote that she agreed with Posner: "Chief Judge Posner aptly described ''Albrechts infirmities." Although she noted that the Court was cautious in overturning precedents, the "great weight" of scholarly opinion had held that the Court's 1968 decision was incorrect.

References

External links

* {{caselaw source , case = ''State Oil Co. v. Khan'', {{ussc, 522, 3, 1997, el=no , cornell =https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/522/3 , courtlistener =https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/118149/state-oil-co-v-khan/ , findlaw = https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/522/3.html , googlescholar = https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=1079741222046422649 , justia =https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/522/3/case.html , loc =http://cdn.loc.gov/service/ll/usrep/usrep522/usrep522003/usrep522003.pdf , oyez =https://www.oyez.org/cases/1997/96-871 United States antitrust case law United States energy case law United States Supreme Court cases United States Supreme Court cases of the Rehnquist Court United States Supreme Court decisions that overrule a prior Supreme Court decision 1997 in United States case law

Background

Decision

See also

References

Further reading

External links