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In re Northwest Airlines Corp.

District Court, E.D. Michigan (2002) | 208 F.R.D. 174; 2002 WL 1009250

4 min read

TL;DR: Airlines prohibited "hidden-city" ticketing, where passengers buy cheaper tickets for longer routes and discard the last leg. Passengers sued for conspiracy and monopolization. The court denied the airlines' summary judgment motion, finding sufficient evidence for a jury to consider both antitrust claims.

Legal Significance: This case limits the "fraud prevention" defense in antitrust law and affirms that eliminating intrabrand competition (like hidden-city ticketing) can constitute anticompetitive conduct under Sherman Act § 2, particularly when a firm possesses significant interbrand market power at its hubs.