Skiing in Aspen: a Joint Venture

The Aspen ski area consisted of four mountain areas. Aspen Highlands, which owned three of those areas, and Aspen Skiing, which owned the fourth, had cooperated for years in issuing a joint, multiple-day, all-area ski ticket. After repeatedly and unsuccessfully demanding an increased share of the proceeds, Aspen Highlands canceled the joint ticket. Aspen Skiing, concerned that skiers would bypass its mountain without some joint offering, tried a variety of increasingly desperate measures to re-create the joint ticket, even to the point of in effective offering to buy Aspen Highland's tickets at retail price. Aspen Highlands refused even that. Aspen Skiing brought suit under the Sherman Act, alleging that the refusal to cooperate was a move by Aspen Highlands to eliminate all competition in the area by freezing it out of business.

After summarizing the issue in your first paragraph, be sure to address the following:

• Is there an antitrust claim here in the refusal to cooperate?
• What statue and violation do you think Aspen Skiing alleged?
• What dangers do you see in finding the failure to cooperate to be an antitrust violation? (conclusion paragraph)

[Aspen Skiing Co. v. Aspen Highlands Skiing Corp. U.S. 585]