California Dental Association v. Federal Trade Commission
United States Supreme Court
526 U.S. 756 (1999)
The California Dental Association (defendant), whose ethics code restricted certain price and quality-related advertising by its dentist-members, was found by the FTC (plaintiff) to have violated antitrust law based partly on a full analysis and partly on an abbreviated quick-look rule-of-reason approach; the Ninth Circuit affirmed, finding the restrictions so obviously anticompetitive that a full market analysis was unnecessary. CDA appealed, and the Supreme Court granted certiorari.
Whether a quick-look antitrust analysis, rather than a full rule-of-reason analysis, is appropriate where the anticompetitive effects of a restraint on trade cannot be easily and confidently ascertained without deeper factual inquiry.