| **STATEMENT OF COMMISSIONERS ORSON SWINDLE AND THOMAS B. LEARY**

*In the Matter of**NINE WEST GROUP INC.***File No. 981 0386

We have voted to accept the consent agreement for public comment because we have reason    to believe that the conduct engaged in by Nine West falls outside the limited zone of    protection afforded by the *Colgate* doctrine,(1)    and thus is per se illegal under current law. We do not mean to indicate agreement,    however, with the artificial analysis mandated by the *Colgate* doctrine or with    the overbroad per se condemnation of minimum resale price maintenance ("RPM"),    which the *Colgate* doctrine mitigates to some degree.

We do not know what conclusion we might have reached had Nine West's behavior been    analyzed under the rule of reason, because that question did not arise. Nevertheless, one    can easily posit instances of minimum RPM that involve a mixture of procompetitive and    anticompetitive effects, like any other vertical restraint, and undercut the continuing    validity of the per se rule against the practice. Several years ago, the Supreme Court    took the beneficial step of reexamining and overruling the doctrine that condemned maximum    RPM as per se illegal.(2) When an appropriate case arises,    we believe that the Court should continue this healthy trend by reassessing the even    hoarier per se treatment of minimum RPM.(3)

1. *United States v. Colgate & Co*., 250 U.S. 300    (1919). 

2. *State Oil Co. v. Khan*, 522 U.S. 3 (1997), *overruling**Albrecht v. Herald Co*., 390 U.S. 145 (1968). 

3. *Dr. Miles Medical Co. v. John D. Park & Sons Co.*,    220 U.S. 373 (1911). |
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