Jeremy Heep Quoted in Law360 Article, 'AmEx Antitrust Appeal To Highlight Market Share Fight'
Jeremy Heep, partner and co-chair of Pepper's Antitrust and Competition section, was quoted in the December 15, 2015 Law360 article, "AmEx Antitrust Appeal To Highlight Market Share Fight."
"The very interesting issue from a counseling perspective is that American Express is alleged to have this 26 percent market share, which is below the 30 percent share that we generally think about ... when we're advising
clients," said Pepper Hamilton LLP partner Jeremy Heep. "Generally when clients are saying, 'I'm proposing this pricing practice or distribution restriction,' anything that's vertical ... when they're
below the 30 percent threshold generally the advice is that it's a pretty low risk proposition."
Of course the AmEx case does have some unusual features, including the government's argument that AmEx has considerable leverage because of the insistence that its cardholders have on being able to use their American Express
cards, according to Heep.
"It depends on what the appellate court says and how they say it, but I suspect that if this is upheld the advice that I give will be largely the same but may have to contain an additional caveat," Heep said. "That
would involve some additional prodding and pushing to make sure we really understand how the market is structured, the one that's at issue in the advice scenario, to make sure we're not falling into however the Second Circuit
characterizes the AmEx situation."
Content contributed by attorneys of Troutman Sanders LLP and Pepper Hamilton LLP prior to April 1, 2020, is included here, together with content contributed by attorneys of Troutman Pepper (the combined entity) after the merger date.