In Todd V Exxon Corp

In Todd v. Exxon Corp., where Exxon other oil companies hired a consultant to gather information about the salaries they paid professionals at the companies, and the information was used to help set salaries, the appeals court held the practice was:

A) illegal because there is a per se rule against sharing price information among competitors
B) legal because improved price information helps produce better decisions in the market
C) legal because the information was shared openly, so there could be no conspiracy
D) legal because an outsider collected the information, not the firms themselves
E) none of the other choices