Crossover grading

[benjulmag]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

All I can go on is all the years of practice I have had including many antitrust cases some pretty high profile. I would personally value that more than your smell test -- antitrust law can be very technical -- but whatever. If you think you know more about antitrust law than I do, cool. PS in your (V) you have the wrong company's profitability going down you might want to fix that.

Kinder, gentler version of above -- just because big company A does something to hurt small company B, even badly hurt it, it doesn't necessarily implicate the antitrust laws. It might, but there are lots of reasons it might not. It's a very complex subject that even the Supreme Court struggles with at times.

In the example I give, company B has a stated policy of crossing over a card from company A if the card meets company B's criteria. So what point are you making by saying that they did not have to have that policy? I am not talking about that fact pattern. I initiated this thread to discuss what if any legal implications there might be to company B if it can be proven that the real reason it did not do the crossover is not because its specified criteria is not met but only because the card came from company A, and this practice is repeated over and over.

As far as antitrust law is concerned, I am not stating that it is not complicated, nor that I profess to have more expertise or experience in it then you do. Nor am I stating that this is a cut and dry legal matter. My intent is to initiate discussion about a practice that I have heard takes place, and if it does, it reeks to the bone. If company B wants to have a policy of not crossing over company A's cards, great, then say so. But unless they explicitly state that is their policy, I believe they have a duty to objectively evaluate crossover submissions.

While I agree that antitrust law may be complicated, the economic principles on which I understand it to be based I believe are pretty basic. I am familiar with many of the Supreme Court cases on this subject and the struggles the Court has had. So to the extent you are insinuating that if our hobby ends up with company B having a near 100% market share, coupled it being proven the company did not objectively evaluate submissions in accordance with its stated policies, it is very unlikely that company A has any legal recourse or that there are not antitrust implications, I respectfully disagree.

PS. Thank you for pointing out I had the wrong company's profitability going down. I have corrected that.