Lawmakers and regulators are pushing to revive the Robinson-Patman Act, a 1936 law that attempts to restrict price discrimination.
In two new CEI reports, former FTC Chairman Tim Muris and former Director of the Bureau of Economics at the FTC, Bruce Kobayashi, challenge this movement as fundamentally anti-consumer. Muris provides a historical critique, arguing that the Act’s sponsors hoped to protect inefficient middlemen from innovative retailers. When such language could not be enacted, the final version instead is often confusing, at times incoherent, and subject to multiple interpretations.
In the companion essay, both authors analyze the modern economic literature, finding it supportive of the modern approach toward deemphasizing Robinson-Patman. The two reports demonstrate that Robinson-Patman’s restrictions on differential pricing, as enforced aggressively by the FTC for the first three decades after the statute passed, actually harmed consumers.
Please join CEI for a webinar on the Robinson-Patman Act with Tim Muris, Bruce Kobayashi, USC Professor D. Daniel Sokol, moderated by CEI’s Center for Technology and Innovation Director Jessica Melugin.
When: 2:00 – 3:00 pm
Tuesday, February 24, 2026
Sign up to join the conversation live and receive a link to the video archive following the event. Registration confirmation and event reminder emails will be sent from CEI Events at [email protected].
Questions: [email protected] or 202.331.2764
Bruce H. Kobayashi is the Paige V. and Henry N. Butler Chair in Law and Economics at Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University. He previously served as the director of the FTC’s Bureau of Economics from May 2018 to December 2019. He also served as a senior economist with the Federal Trade Commission, a senior research associate with the U.S. Sentencing Commission, and an economist with the U.S. Department of Justice. He also was the founding director of the Global Antitrust Institute and has taught antitrust economics to hundreds of foreign competition officials and judges. Kobayashi has also served as an instructor for the Law and Economics Center’s Judicial Education Program at George Mason University, where he has taught economics to hundreds of U.S. federal and state judges. He has authored more than 70 books, monographs, and articles addressing issues in law and economics, including the application of economics to antitrust, intellectual property, and consumer protection law.
Timothy J. Muris is a George Mason University Foundation Professor of Law at the Antonin Scalia Law School and senior counsel at Sidley. He was chairman of the Federal Trade Commission from 2001 to 2004. He was director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection from 1981 to 1983 and of the Bureau of Competition from 1983 to 1985, and an assistant to the director of the Office of Policy Planning and Evaluation from 1974 to 1976. Muris is the only person to have served as Director of both of the FTC’s enforcement bureaus. He is also the author of more than 130 books, monographs, and articles addressing issues in economics and law, especially raised during his work at, study of, and advising clients before the FTC.
D. Daniel Sokol is the Carolyn Craig Franklin Chair in Law and a Professor of Law and Business at the USC Gould School of Law and Marshall School of Business. He also serves as faculty director of the Center for Transnational Law and Business and the co-director of the USC Marshall Initiative on Digital Competition. Additionally, in a part-time capacity, he serves as Senior Advisor at White & Case LLP. Sokol is among the top 10 most cited antitrust law professors in the past five years. He is a member of the American Law Institute, an academic advisor to the United States Chamber of Commerce, and a non-governmental Advisor to the International Competition Network.
Jessica Melugin is director of the Center for Technology & Innovation at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Her research focuses on technology issues including antitrust, online privacy, artificial intelligence, telecommunications, and social media content. She leads CEI’s Eye on FTC project. Her writings have appeared in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Bloomberg Law, National Review and others. Ms. Melugin is a frequent cable news television and radio guest. She is an Innovators Network Antitrust and Competition Policy Fellow.