Antitrust Conspiracies and How to Avoid Them (Presented by Troutman Pepper Locke)

This session examines how trade association membership can expose companies to civil antitrust liability, using recent cases like the NAR real estate commission litigation as key examples. Participants will learn the critical distinction between mandatory and optional association rules, and how maintaining independent decision-making ability reduces legal exposure.

This session explores how algorithmic and dynamic pricing tools can create price fixing risk under hub-and-spoke conspiracy theories, drawing from landmark cases like RealPage and Gibson v. Sendengroup. Attendees will also examine new state legislation in California and New York that significantly restricts the use of common pricing algorithms across industries.

This session addresses how AI-driven business tools can amplify antitrust coordination concerns, including the DOJ’s stated intent to criminally prosecute AI-based restraints of trade. Participants will review updated DOJ compliance guidance requiring intimate understanding of AI pricing systems and learn which industries face heightened enforcement scrutiny.