NewYorkUniversity
LawReview
Issue

Volume 73, Number 3

June 1998

Should the Exemption from the Robinson-Patman Act Apply to Pharmaceutical Purchases by Nonprofit HMOs?

Aimee M.W. Pollak

This Note criticizes the conclusion reached in Prescription Drugs and argues that the interpretation of section 13c offered by the court misconstrued the statute, inappropriately expanding both the group of purchasers and the products to which the statute should apply. This Note also criticizes previous interpretations of the statute, arguing that courts subtly have changed and updated the statute with each successive reading. Finally, this Note argues that the misinterpretation of section 13c is simply one example of a broader problem—the lack of an interpretative theory to guide the reading of obsolete statutes. In response, this Note proposes a novel theory of interpretation: the changed circumstances theory.