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The term illegal per se means that the act is inherently illegal. Thus, an act is illegal without extrinsic proof of any surrounding circumstances such as scienter or other defenses. Acts are made illegal per se by statute, constitution, or case law.
Drunk driving Many drunk driving laws make driving with a blood alcohol content of 0.08% or higher an act which is illegal per se. Antitrust In the United States, illegal per se often refers to categories of anticompetitive behavior in antitrust law conclusively presumed to be an "unreasonable restraint on trade" and thus anticompetitive. The United States Supreme Court has, in the past, determined activities such as price fixing, retail price maintenance, geographic market division, group boycotts, and tying arrangements to be illegal per se regardless of the reasonableness of such actions. Traditionally, illegal per se anti-trust acts describe horizontal arrangements among market competitors. The illegal per se category can trace its origins in the 1899 Supreme Court case Addyston Pipe & Steel Co. v. U. S., 175 U.S. 211 (1899). A number of cases have subsequently raised doubt to the validity of the illegal per se rule. Under modern Antitrust theories, the traditionally illegal per se categories create more of a presumption of unreasonableness. The court carefully narrowed the per se treatment and began issuing guidelines. Courts and agencies seeking to apply the per se rule must: See also | ||||||||
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