To contrast that approach to Topco, a horizontal contract, combination or conspiracy would by itself no longer be sufficient for liability; it is merely a necessary condition.
(22) Commissioner Calvani's opinion in Massachusetts Board discussed the Supreme Court's recent horizontal contract cases and interpreted them along the lines just noted.
Obviously, had the moratorium agreement been treated as a per se matter, the horizontal contract would have been illegal.
What standard of liability should apply to horizontal contracts has been an issue at the Federal Trade Commission for some two decades.
The detailed reasons for believing that the lessons learned from analyzing vertical contracts might apply to
horizontal contracts will be discussed below, by first comparing RPM to horizontal price fixing, and then comparing exclusive territory arrangements to horizontal market allocations.