Note:
Howard N. Fenton, III, Stock Exchanges—Antitrust—Stock Exchange Practice of Fixing Minimum Brokerage Commission Rates is Exempt from the Antitrust Laws. Gordon v. New York Stock Exchange (2d Cir. 1974), 53 TEXAS L. REV. 178 (1974).
 

Abstract:
In Gordon, the Second Circuit held that by vesting supervision of exchange brokerage commissions in the SEC in Section 19(b)(9) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, Congress intended to exempt commission rate-fixing from the operation of the Sherman Act. The court reasoned that in granting the SEC the authority to promulgate exchange rules and regulations under section 19(b), Congress identified an area essential the effective operation of the Exchange Act, thereby prompting antitrust exemption under the Supreme Court’s holding in Silver v. New York Stock Exchange. In this note, the author agrees with the Second Circuit’s holding as applied to commission rate-fixing, but argues that dictum on a broad exemption for the SEC from antitrust regulation under Section 19(b) was unwarranted in Gordon.