Pricing regulation since it reaches the very nerve center of the marketplace must be carefully administered. For this reason, all of the courts construing Robinson-Patman or similar provisions in other state courts have been careful to insure that the statute is not abused by a competitor carping about bonafide price competition. This Court can take judicial notice of the Faulkner County marketplace. The items pleaded in this complaint are readily available through numerous outlets. This defendant is a vigorous price competitor.
Low prices are what the antitrust laws are designed to promote.
They were not intended in inception or in current application to shelter marketplace participants from price competition. The Eighth Circuit in recent Robinson-Patman cases has emphasized the importance of holding plaintiffs to a strict proof of injury to the competitive process. In this particular case, Plaintiffs would be obliged to define a relevant product market and the geographic region in which it operates. It would then need to plead facts giving rise to the conclusion that the competition in this marketplace is under imminent threat by reason of the acts complained of. This would require a showing by allegation and ultimately by proof that the pricing structure was, in fact, predatory.