The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit affirmed dismissal of antitrust claims asserting concerted denial of access to an essential facility in the natural gas market in western Colorado. The appellate court found that the plaintiff, a venture seeking to enter the gas production market, failed to present sufficient evidence of harm to competition in a properly defined relevant market. Confirming the persistent significance of relevant market analysis in antitrust cases, a district court’s acceptance of a narrow relevant market proposed by the U.S. Department of Justice ensured the government’s successful challenge to Aetna’s proposed acquisition of rival health insurer Humana.

Essential Facilities

Under the hundred-year-old essential facilities doctrine, one who controls a key infrastructure, network or other “bottleneck” may violate antitrust law by denying competitors access to the “essential facility,” such as the only bridge across a river. A long line of cases has required monopolists that hold an essential facility to provide access to rivals on reasonable terms. The essential facilities doctrine is closely related to the law on refusing to deal with rivals. In some circumstances, a monopolist may violate the Sherman Act by refusing to deal with rivals when, aside from the benefit of excluding competitors, it would be profitable and prudent to continue to do business with them.

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