writing assignment about law

Kantu Electronics is a Hong Kong company that manufacturers computer chips. Its customers

are primarily U.S. high tech companies. Those companies buy Kantu’s chips and integrate them

into their systems. The process of integration takes place in the U.S. at the factories of Kantu’s

customers. There are only 5 companies, including Kantu, that manufacture the specific chips

that Kantu manufacturers. Therefore, there are 5 companies that make up the relevant

product market for the production of these chips. They are all located in China, but they all

compete in the U.S. market.

Kantu’s main office and production facilities are in Shenzhen, China. It manufactures its chips

there and transports them to the Port of Hong Kong. The products are then taken by a vessel of

Kantu’s selection to the Port of Los Angeles. From there, the chips are taken by rail to Kantu,

U.S. which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Kantu located in Memphis, Tennessee. From there

the chips are taken by trucks to the customers’ locations where they are integrated into Kantu’s

customers’ end products.

Memphis is the site of Kantu, U.S. because it is in the heartland of the United States. Its

overland trucking is some of the best in the nation because of the number of truck terminals

that are primarily on the south and southwest sides of Memphis. If necessary, the chips are

shipped by air via Federal Express which has its headquarters and primary air shipping

operations in Memphis.

In addition, because of the development of the tech industry in Memphis and the corporate

headquarters that are located there, many of Kantu’s chips are integrated into final products by

Kanti’s Memphis customers which fully integrated products are then sold to Memphis tech

companies and corporate headquarters in the Memphis area.

Because competition among chip manufacturers has become quite intense, Kantu had a

meeting in Hong Kong with its competitors. At that meeting, all of the competitors agreed to

price their chips at the same price and that they would, thereafter compete on other attributes

of competition, such as speed of manufacturing, delivery times, and service of the warranties

that they provide customers, and the response time for servicing any warranty complaints by

customers.

Assume that there are no antitrust, antitrust conspiracy, or price fixing laws in China.

1

In the

United States, the Sherman Act prohibits monopolization, attempts to monopolize, antitrust

conspiracies, and anti-competitive price fixing, etc.

2

The Department of Justice is considering filing in the Western District of Tennessee a RICO

action against Kantu arising out of the price fixing and conspiracy to fix prices. The Western

District of Tennessee is the jurisdiction that handles federal cases in the Memphis area.

You are the primary research attorney for the U.S. Attorney in the Western District of

Tennessee. U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions invites you to Washington to a meeting with the

U.S. Attorney for the Western District to discuss this potential action. He asks you for the issues

that you see with respect to this contemplated RICO action. What do you tell him?

If, on the other hand, you were one of Kantu’s U.S. customers, would you be able to bring a civil

RICO action against Kantu in the Western District?