Whether Section 1 of the Sherman Act preempts state laws facilitating such unsupervised private price-fixing

QUESTION PRESENTED Connecticut law requires private beer, wine and liquor wholesalers to “post” their prices in advance so that all competing wholesalers can match them, to “hold” those prices for a month, and to refrain from offering quantity discounts to retailers. In addition, the wholesalers in this scheme determine not only the case prices paid by retailers, but also the minimum bottle prices paid by consumers. By design, this scheme mimics the results of an illegal price-fixing conspiracy while enabling the cartel’s participants to avoid any explicit “agreement.” Yet no state actor supervises the ensuing prices to ensure their reasonableness. The question presented, which has divided the courts of appeals, is: Whether Section 1 of the Sherman Act preempts state laws facilitating such unsupervised private price-fixing. (i)