Leegin Creative Leather Products, Inc. v. PSKS, Inc. -- Resale Price Maintenance No Longer Illegal Per Se

On June 28, 2007, the United States Supreme Court overruled a 96-year-old case (known as Dr. Miles) and held that minimum resale price maintenance ("RPM") agreements between a supplier and its customers are no longer "per se" unlawful under Sherman Act Section 1. Instead, like all other vertical restraints, minimum RPM agreements will be judged under the "rule of reason."1 Although Leegin does not mean that agreements between a supplier and dealer fixing the minimum price at which the dealer can resell the supplier's goods will always be lawful, the decision will give U.S. companies greater freedom under federal law to control the downstream pricing of their goods.