The American Booksellers Association was recently invited to offer comments before a committee appointed by Congress to look at U.S. federal antitrust law with the view of updating it. The Antitrust Modernization Commission Robinson-Patman Act Panel asked ABA to offer comments because of the association's past lawsuits against major publishers and bookstore chains Barnes & Noble and Borders, which were filed under provisions of the act.

On Thursday, July 28, Bruce V. Spiva, an attorney at Tycko, Zavareei & Spiva LLP, offered the comments of ABA to the panel. Spiva had worked with ABA on its previous litigation under Robinson-Patman.

ABA's written comments were presented to the committee prior to Spiva's oral comments, which were limited to five minutes. ABA's written comments are available in full at http://news.bookweb.org/read/3688 [5] or in downloadable PDF format [6].