Described as the Rodney Dangerfield of the antitrust laws, the Robinson-Patman Act—which prohibits anticompetitive price discrimination—gets no respect. The Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission unapologetically refuse to enforce the Act, and the FTC has called for its repeal. Courts often treat the Act with undisguised disdain; one court (quoting a law review article) said that “[n]o one, it appears, dwells longer than necessary in the land of Robinson-Patman.” The Act’s continued vitality derives from private antitrust cases, usually brought by customers who allege that a supplier has charged them higher prices than their competitors.

The antitrust laws welcome lower prices as the result of economic efficiency. The Robinson-Patman Act, however, discourages selective discounting in the name of fairness rather than efficiency. The antitrust laws seek to protect market-wide competition, not necessarily individual competitors. The Robinson-Patman Act, however, operates like a business tort law, and while it purports to protect competitive markets, it often is summoned to aid particular businesses.