Abstract
The "network" idea and the "joint venture" idea intersect dramatically in this era of rapidly expanding technology and market opportunities. Although each idea alone has broad policy implications, the intersection of the two raises critical questions about the antitrust doctrines which we have inherited from our forefathers. As used here, a "network" is a mixture of facilities and rules which allows "primary" market competitors to exchange or share transactions, physical traffic, energy, electronic impulses, or information. Market competitors seek such exchanges in order to offer their customers new, better, cheaper, or more valuable services. Dramatically declining costs of communication, transportation, transmission, and computation now make it possible to link distant or specialized competitors in new ways. These links create competitive network markets where monopoly has previously been assumed the norm, or where there has been no market at all. As The Economist of London has emphasized, "[t]he new networks provide magnificent opportunities for innovation .... The sheer diversity of the networks now being developed makes it hard to see what the finished system will look like."
Recommended Citation
Baker, Donald I.
(1993)
"Compulsory Access to Network Joint
Ventures Under the Sherman Act:
Rules or Roulette?,"
Utah Law Review: Vol. 1993:
No.
4, Article 1.
Available at:
https://dc.law.utah.edu/ulr/vol1993/iss4/1