Texaco Inc. v. Dagher,
547 U.S. 1 (
2006), was a decision by the
Supreme Court of the United States involving the application of U.S.
antitrust law to a
joint venture between oil companies to market
gasoline to
gas stations. The Court ruled unanimouslyThe vote was 8-0; the ninth justice,
Samuel Alito, was confirmed to the Court on January 31, 2006 after it had already heard
oral argument on January 10, and so did not participate in the decision. that the joint venture's unified price for the two companies' brands of gasoline was not a
price-fixing scheme between competitors in violation of the
Sherman Antitrust Act. The Court instead considered the joint venture a single entity that made pricing decisions, in which the oil companies participated as cooperative investors.
Background of the case
Joint venture
Texaco and
Shell Oil, historically competitors in the national and international oil and gasoline markets, formed a joint venture in 1998 called "Equilon" to consolidate their operations in the
western United States, which ended competition between the two companies in the domestic refining and marketing of gasoline. Under the joint venture agreement, Texaco and Shell agreed to pool their resources and share the risks of and profits from Equilon's activities. Equilon's
board of directors would comprise representatives of Texaco and Shell Oil, and Equilon gasoline would be sold to gas stations under the original Texaco and Shell Oil...
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