An Implicit Exemption, Implicitly Applied: Blurring the Line of Accommodation between Labor Policy and Antitrust Law in Harris v. Safeway

On July 12, 2011, in Harris v. Safeway, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that an agreement among employers to share profits during a labor union strike did not fall within the non-statutory labor exemption to the antitrust laws and required full rule of reason review. In doing so, however, the court may have discouraged future plaintiffs from bringing suit in antitrust labor cases. This Comment argues that although the court appropriately denied exemption from the antitrust laws, it implicitly applied the exemption by allowing collective bargaining peculiarities to control its subsequent antitrust analysis.