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The Eastman Kodak Case Analysis Essay

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The Eastman Kodak case study from 1994 provides summarized details of the brief filed in the United States court of appeals for the second circuit. The case of United States v. Eastman Kodak (Kodak) appealed the New York district court decision to terminate two antitrust decrees imposed on Kodak dating back to 1921 and 1954. According to Baye and Scholten (1994), the 1921 antitrust suit was filed against Kodak in violation of Section 2 of the Sherman Act. Kodak was accused of monopolizing the photography market by buying competitors and preventing the acquired companies from selling non-Kodak brands. The lawsuit was settled in the form of a consent decree which prevented Kodak from enforcing exclusivity arrangements on any retailer and required Kodak to divest of several acquisitions to disband the monopoly. Another antitrust suit was filed against Kodak in 1954 when color print film was being marketed. Baye and Scholten (1994, 1) report that Kodak had more than 90% of the color film market in 1954. Kodak was bundling their color film sales with film processing. Another consent decree was reached to prevent Kodak from jointly marketing the sale of color film with the associated processing and to provide technical guidance to other companies interested in getting into the business. The government contends that the district court did not sufficiently prove that Kodak lacks market power in the film industry and moves to reinstate both decrees to protect competition.

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