FTC v. Whole Foods: Which Standards? Which Substitutes?

If email traffic over the American Bar Association’s Antitrust Section “conversation†list is any indication, the recent 2-1 decision by a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit Court in FTC v. Whole Foods is the hottest current topic, at least in the U.S. corner of the competition policy community. In this article, I briefly discuss some legal issues, then turn to aspects of market definition, and conclude with observations relating to recent discussions on the role of distributional considerations in merger assessment.