DeLong Equipment Co. v. Washington Mills Electro Minerals Corp.

OAKES, Senior Circuit Judge:

The critical question presented by this case involves a conspiracy between a manufacturer and a favored distributor. The object of the conspiracy was to raise wholesale prices to other distributors, including the plaintiff, on products to be sold to one large customer. It is of some significance that the wholesale price, as raised, was higher than prevailing retail prices. The antitrust law question is whether this conspiracy was a device to force an increase in the resale price, or a vertical agreement to fix the minimum resale price in violation of § 1 of the…