The Role and Relevance of Exemptions and Immunities in U.S. Antitrust Law

Antitrust practitioners that believe that competition results in the best outcomes for consumers have long taken a skeptical view of the exemptions and immunities that shield certain sectors of the economy from antitrust law. The American Bar Association’s Section of Antitrust Law has analyzed the place of exemptions and immunities in U.S. competition law. This paper explains the positions that the Section has expressed in the past, and then applies the logic of those positions to determine how other, as yet unaddressed, exemptions and immunities should be treated.