beer distributors to carry anheuser products only. products from other brewers, especially the small microbrewers and smaller national brands, cannot gain access to or are being forced off the shelves of the nation's 2,700 wholesale beer distributors. the federal trade commission and the justice department also recently began involving applications developers for its iPhones, iPod touches and iPads, would undermine competition. the concern is with apple's stipulation that requires developers of applications for these mobile devices to use only apple software tools to build their applications. because Apple is such a dominant manufacturer, especially in the smartphone market where it has sold more than 100 million units, its exclusive dealing stipulation that allows application developers to use only Apple software may substantially lessen competition. by preventing other software tools from gaining access to tens of millions of Apple mobile devices, Apple ensures that only its own software will be used, even if competitors ' software products are better and cost less.
the substantiality test has usually been based on three conditions: 1. whether the exclusive arrangement excluder competitive products from a substantial share of the market (justice department guidelines stipulate that if a manufacturer has less than a 10 percent market share it will not bother pursuing the case) 2. whether the dollar amount involved is substantial and 3. whether the dispute is between large suppliers and a smaller distributor or dealer where the supplier's disparate economic power can be inherently coercive. if any or all of these conditions exist, the exclusive dealing arrangements may be open to attack as anticompetitive under both the Sherman act and the federal Trade commission act.
Full-line forcing. if a supplier requires channel members to carry a broad group of products (full line) in order to sell any particular products in the supplier's line this practice is often referred to as full-line-forcing. full-line forcing is used to varying degrees in a wide range of industries. if represents, up to a point, a legitimate effort by the manufacturer to see that a broad range of its products is carried by channel members line. the antitrust issue emerges when full-line forcing occurs to such an extent that it prevents other suppliers from selling competitive lines through channel members who are "loaded up" with the products of the supplier engaging in full-line forcing.
an example of full-line forcing that did step over the legal boundary involved levi Strauss & Company. the federal trade commission issued an injunction to cease and desist from the practice that levi Strauss was using to force department and specialty stores to buy a broad range of apparel in order to obtain the hot-selling levi's jeans. much of this other apparel was not desirable merchandise that the retailers would have stocked of their own volition. some of goods, for instance,consisted of clothing that had had gone out of style. but the retailers were, in effect, forced to buy these products if they wanted access to the jeans, which constituted a very important merchandise category. the forced stocking of this other merchandise resulting from levi's full-line forcing policy meant that the retailers had less capacity to stock apparel from other manufacturers. the effect was to lessen the competition to levi Strauss from competing manufacturers by limiting available retailer shelf space. this, in turn, reduced consumer choice in the marketplace.