Cite as: 522 U. S. 3 (1997)
Opinion of the Court
of the amici curiae have called our attention to any cases in which enforcement efforts have been directed solely against the conduct encompassed by Albrecht's per se rule.
Respondents argue that reconsideration of Albrecht should require "persuasive, expert testimony establishing that the per se rule has distorted the market." Brief for Respondents 7. Their reasoning ignores the fact that Albrecht itself relied solely upon hypothetical effects of vertical maximum price fixing. Further, Albrecht's dire predictions have not been borne out, even though manufacturers and suppliers appear to have fashioned schemes to get around the per se rule against vertical maximum price fixing. In these circumstances, it is the retention of the rule of Albrecht, and not, as respondents would have it, the rule's elimination, that lacks adequate justification. See, e. g., GTE Sylvania, supra, at 58-59.
Respondents' reliance on Toolson v. New York Yankees, Inc., 346 U. S. 356 (1953) (per curiam), and Flood v. Kuhn, 407 U. S. 258 (1972), is similarly misplaced, because those decisions are clearly inapposite, having to do with the antitrust exemption for professional baseball, which this Court has described as "an aberration . . . rest[ing] on a recognition and an acceptance of baseball's unique characteristics and needs," id., at 282. In the context of this case, we infer little meaning from the fact that Congress has not reacted legislatively to Albrecht. In any event, the history of various legislative proposals regarding price fixing seems neither clearly to support nor to denounce the per se rule of Albrecht. Respondents are of course free to seek legislative protection from gasoline suppliers of the sort embodied in the Petroleum Marketing Practices Act, 92 Stat. 322, 15 U. S. C. § 2801 et seq. For the reasons we have noted, however, the remedy for respondents' dispute with State Oil should not come in the form of a per se rule affecting the conduct of the entire marketplace.
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