A Comeback For RPA Price Discrimination Camouflaged As Kickbacks

For nearly a year, the FTC has foreshadowed the revival of the previously dormant Robinson-Patman Act (RPA). With enforcement of the Act potentially forthcoming, companies need to be able to identify, address, and ideally avoid risks that may be embedded in complex supply chain relationships.

This is the fourth post in a Competition Corner series discussing recent updates on RPA enforcement, as well as risks and best practices.¹ Recall that Section 2(a) of the RPA prohibits explicit price discrimination²—charging different prices to different customers for the same product—while Sections 2(d) and 2(e) target side benefits that may be used as workarounds to explicit price discrimination.³ Section 2(c) of the RPA—which is the topic of this post—targets another potential workaround to explicit price discrimination.