Alternative Approaches to Municipal Antitrust Liability

This Comment argues that preemption analysis, applied when federal statutes conflict with state or municipal enactments, should be used by the courts in applying the Parker doctrine to municipalities. Alternatively, this Comment advocates a qualified municipal exemption from the antitrust laws. Since municipalities receive less federal deference than states, this exemption should not be coextensive with that enjoyed by states under the Parker doctrine. However, the preferential treatment that municipalities receive in our federalist system as compared to private parties mandates formulation of a municipal exemption.

Constitutional and practical difficulties encountered under substantive antitrust law, and at the remedies stage, in accounting for the noncompetitive public benefits conferred by municipalities support these departures from the decision in Community Communications Co. v. City of Boulder.