EI Vice President Kent Mikkelsen Testifies for Defense in Robinson-Patman Trial.

Advance Auto Parts and other auto parts retailers were sued under the Robinson-Patman Act for allegedly soliciting discounts from their suppliers that were not made available to other “mom and pop” distributors. Seeking to establish that defendants knew they were getting “discriminatory” discounts, plaintiffs argued that defendants could infer plaintiffs’ acquisition costs from observing plaintiffs’ prices. Kent Mikkelsen testified about the factors affecting a firm’s price, and that due to variations in those factors there is no simple relationship across firms between price and acquisition cost. Defendants prevailed in this jury trial.