Why a "Large and Unjustified" Payment Threshold Is Not Consistent with Actavis

Authors

Michael A. Carrier

Abstract

This Article offers three reasons why a requirement that a plaintiff demonstrate a large and unjustified payment before reaching the rule of reason is not consistent with Actavis. First, nearly all of the Court’s discussion of large and unjustified payments occurred in contexts unrelated to the antitrust analysis that future courts were to apply. Second, the Court instructed lower courts to apply the rule of reason, not a new framework with a threshold it never mentioned. And third, such a threshold is inconsistent with the Court’s (1) allowance of shortcuts for plaintiffs to show anticompetitive effects and market power and (2) imposition of the burden on defendants to show justifications for a payment.

First Page

109

Recommended Citation

Michael A. Carrier, Why a "Large and Unjustified" Payment Threshold Is Not Consistent with Actavis, 91 Wash. L. Rev. 109 (2016).
Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.uw.edu/wlr/vol91/iss1/9