Federal antitrust laws do not provide a sufficient basis for a retailer to bring antitrust claims against the Philadelphia International Airport’s landlord over its efforts to force the company into an exclusive agreement with a third-party beverage vendor, a federal appeals court has ruled.
The precedential decision in Host International v. MarketPlace PHL addressed the novel question of whether the airport’s landlord could tie the lease of a commercial space to an agreement to use only one vendor. The unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit determined that the situation did not raise any antitrust claims, in a decision that upheld a ruling by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
