Opinion ID: 75953
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Aggregation of Market Share

Text: 42 In its second attempt to show that the district court erred by directing a verdict on the market power issue, Maris argues that even if we reject its argument that Anheuser-Busch's market share in the beer market may be imputed to the relevant market in this case, as we have, then we should still find that Anheuser-Busch had sufficient market share to show market power because we should aggregate the market share of all parties subject to Anheuser-Busch's distribution agreements containing the public ownership restriction. This approach would yield a market share somewhere around 48% in the market of ownership interests in beer distributors, and 100% of the submarket of Anheuser-Busch beer distributorships. We conclude that aggregation is inappropriate for purposes of assessing Anheuser-Busch's market share in the type of case before us. 43 In support of its aggregation argument, Maris primarily relies on the Fifth Circuit's opinion in Spectators' Communication Network, Inc. v. Colonial Country Club, 231 F.3d 1005 (5th Cir.2000). In that case, the plaintiff sued one member of an alleged conspiracy to boycott the plaintiff. The district court found that the defendant, who coincidentally was Anheuser-Busch, could not be held liable under § 1 because it individually did not have market power. Id. at 1014. The Fifth Circuit reversed after finding that the market share of all of the co-conspirators should have been aggregated in order to determine whether market power was present, and stated: 44 [A]fter all, the reason for looking at market power is to determine whether the combination or conspiracy, not each individual conspirator, has the power to hurt competition in the relevant market. 45 Id. at 1014. 46 We conclude that Spectators is inapposite in that it deals with a conspiracy to boycott a business, rather than a vertical restraint imposed by a manufacturer on its distributors. If we were to aggregate the market share of all of Anheuser-Busch's distributors here, that would mean that aggregation of market share would always be required when reviewing vertical restraints. This approach would lose track of the fact that the vertical restriction was imposed by a single manufacturer seeking to regulate its distributors. Requiring aggregation also would make it much more difficult for any manufacturer with a significant market share in the market for its products to agree with its distributors with respect to vertical restrictions — which we know can be pro-competitive. When plaintiffs are able to show that a manufacturer's product constitutes a relevant submarket then aggregation would yield a market share of 100%. We also believe that aggregation under these circumstances could threaten many franchise agreements, exclusive dealing agreements, and other arrangements traditionally reviewed under the rule of reason, by making market power seem to appear where it does not really exist. 47 But we need not concern ourselves with aggregation in the context of vertical restraints in general, the particular vertical restraint in the instant case is one that would appear to be of interest only to Anheuser-Busch. Maris has pointed to no evidence that other distributors have sought to prevent Maris from selling to a publicly owned entity. Nor has Maris suggested any reason why other distributors might want to do so. Unlike Spectators, there is no agreement or conspiracy here that all Anheuser-Busch distributors will refuse to deal with Maris; no Anheuser-Busch distributor has agreed to do anything, or refrain from doing anything with respect to Maris. Instead, the agreement at issue only involves Maris and Anheuser-Busch. 48 We hold that it is not appropriate to aggregate Anheuser-Busch's market share with that of its distributors when determining whether Anheuser-Busch has market power in the relevant product market for equity ownership interests in beer distributorships for purposes of assessing a claim that the ban on public ownership constitutes an illegal vertical restraint.