The pitfalls of selective distribution: the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal’s judgment in Up & Running v. Deckers
Rona Bar-Isaac & K. J. H. Phillips
What the paper says
In a recent judgment, the Competition Appeal Tribunal ruled that a manufacturer’s refusal, under its online sales policy, to allow an authorized retailer in a selective distribution system to sell branded running shoes on a second website that did not refer to the retailer’s brand name amounted to a by object infringement of competition law. Despite both parties having low market shares, the Tribunal held that the online sales policy contained hardcore restrictions, taking the arrangement outside the protection of the Vertical Block Exemption safe harbour. The case marks the first time since the UK’s departure from the EU that a UK court has considered the application of competition law to a selective distribution system. The Tribunal’s emphasis, in assessing the existence of an infringement, on the importance of a selective distribution system having a legitimate aim and being applied consistently in practice raises important legal and practical implications for the operation of selective distribution models in the UK.
Evidence weight
Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40
| F · citation impact | 0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20 |
| M · momentum | 0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07 |
| V · venue signal | 0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03 |
| R · text relevance † | 0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20 |
† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.