The issue is whether the exception for volume purchasing to the rule of universal pricing for wholesale transactions under Robinson Patman Act is Constitutional. A functional discount occurs where a buyer is permitted to purchase a product at a lower price per unit than another buyer. The legality of the practice, however, is less than clear, since functional discounts often present both buyers and sellers with many legal 'problems under the Robinson-Patman Act.
In order to violate Robinson Patman Act businesses may engage in the following activities such as charge a different price between different purchasers of commodities of like grade and quantity, must be likely to cause injury to competition (that is, a private plaintiff must also show actual harm to his or her business), and the sale must occur in the interstate commerce. Different discounts levels or lower prices, can be offered where: (1) the same discount is practically available to all purchasers; (2) a lower price is justified by a lower per-unit cost of selling to the “favored” buyer; (3) a lower price is offered in
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As one commentator has explained, the Robinson-Patman Act “was designed to protect small businesses from larger, more efficient businesses. A necessary result is higher consumer prices.” Moreover, the Act ironically appears increasingly to be ineffective even in protecting small businesses. Over time, many businesses have found ways to comply with the Act by, for example, differentiating products, so they can sell somewhat different products to different purchasers at different prices. Such methods are likely to increase the seller’s costs—and thus increase costs to consumers—but do nothing to protect small businesses. The Act generally appears to have failed in achieving its main
The role of law reform has responded rather effectively to a certain extent in protecting the rights of consumers. This is evident in the legal responses introduced to address issues of credit, marketing innovation and technology. These law amendments has effectively increase the protection of the rights of consumers to a certain extent, however loopholes still exist. Due to the increasing range of goods and services continues to grow and the failure of existing laws, the role of law reform has been significant in protecting the rights of consumers. Consumer laws were created to prevent deceitful activities, or unfair business practices, as well as serving a protection for weaker parties who are unable to protect themselves. However, laws were later reformed to enable customers to transact with confidence and protect suppliers, consumers from inappropriate business conduct and to reflect changed community values and circumstances.
A Louisiana attorney is constantly asked by non-Louisiana peers if the state ever adopted the Uniform Commercial Code or if they are still using the old, outdated, Napoleonic Code. Though Louisiana has stark interpretations of the relevance of the UCC, the state has adopted the code in piecemeal. This article is a partial synopsis of introducing readers to a few of the concepts of UCC as adopted by Louisiana compared to the existing principles of the law of sales.
“Processor Editorial Article - Antitrust Laws: Not Just For The Big Boys.” Editorial.Processor 19 Nov. 2004: 27+. Processor.com. Web. 29 Nov. 2011 .
...tually break up monopolies when they formed, by specific legislation” (600). They see that the government is letting the business tycoons to own whatever land they want and extend their fortunes. Unlike the first two books, Johnson’s book discussed the history of the book without bias and from a different perception; one that was not came from an American view.
There are many differences and similarities between The Scottsboro Case and the Tom Robinson’s case of the novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Some similarities between the two cases are that the defendants are African Americans who are falsely accused of a crime they never committed. This reveals that the cases were during the time where racism was at its worst. All the defendants were accused of rape and the two women testified against black men, like what Mayella Ewell did. And the judges were all white. Some differences are that the Scottsboro case included nine men, while Tom Robinson was the only man in his trial. And all but the 12 year old was sentenced to death, while Tom was shot later on after the trial. Lastly, after the state retried
Apart from Antitrust laws, there are several other laws that promote fair business practices. The Robinson-Patman Act prohibits price discrimination. This act ...
This essay will examine key aspects of the recent implementation of the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) 2011, which is the largest overhaul in Consumer Law in Australia in the past twenty five years. The ACL replaces 20 existing State and Territory laws into one national law , the legislation was enacted in two main parts as Schedule 2 of the renamed Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth) (TPA) - Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) (CCA) . Aforementioned this essay it will outline the key benefits of the implementation of the act. Furthermore it will critique the Act, whilst exploring the objectives of the legislation.
middle of paper ... ... Also, some railroads gave special rates to some shippers in exchange that the shippers continued doing business with the railroad company. In the Clayton Antitrust Act, it said no one in commerce could regulate rates of price between different buyers (Document E). It said that otherwise, this would create a monopoly in any line of commerce. However, the Elkins Act of 1903 pushed heavy fines on the companies that did that.
The extents of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution has been long discussed since its adoption in mid-late 1800s. Deciding cases like Brown v. Board of Education and Roe v. Wade has been possible due to mentioned amendment. These past cases not only show the progression of American society, but also highlights the degree of versatility that is contained within the amendment. Now, in 2015, the concerns are not of racial segregation or abortion, the extent of the amendment was brought to a new field: same-sex marriage. In Obergefell v Hodges, we can see the epitome of the Equal Protection Clause.
This article, America’s Monopoly Problem, was composed by Derek Thompson and published on the Atlantic Newsletter: For much of the 20th century, small businesses thrived and there was a steady control over big businesses, but in the more recent years, our economy is seeing more large, monopolistic firms popping up in all types of industries. Political power also comes into play under the issue of monopolies.
Many businesses used this new process to raise the price of their competitors. They did this by putting constraints on entry restrictions (Woods 1986). At the state level, other laws were put in place to support the Food and Drug Act mainly to help local and area producers who were and would be facing new nat...
 Retailers have been using price guarantees as a tactic to attract customers and stop customers from seeking lower prices. But we know you know better. “Lowest Price Guarantees” ,“Best Prices Guarantees”, we hear and see these enough times on advertising to take it with a great pinch of salt. It always comes with an Asterisks * You will almost always see an asterisk next to these statements because there’s always a catch. Buried in the often lengthy Terms and Conditions document, written in tiny fonts, are the conditions where the retailers are obligated to act on their guarantees.
Predatory pricing “is alleged to occur when a firm sets a price for its product that is below some measure of cost and forfeits revenues in the short run to put competitors out of business” (Sheffet p.163-164). The reason firms take the short term loss is because they hope to drive out competitors and raise prices to monopolistic levels. By doing this, they covered their short term loss to make even greater profits in the long term than they would have by not using predatory tactics (Sheffert). Predatory pricing became illegal under Section 2 of the Sherman Act. It has remained one of the more difficult allegations for prosecutors to prove, due to the complexity of determining the company’s actual intent and whether or not it the strategy is competitive pricing. According to Areeda and Turner, there are three ways to determine if a firm is implementing predatory pricing. First, a price above marginal cost is presumed lawful; second, a price below marginal cost is considered unlawful, except when there is strong demand; and third, average variable cost is considered a good proxy for marginal cost. This is a reason predatory pricing is still important today. The courts must decide whether or not companies are engaging in competitive prices for the good of the consumers or are using predatory tactics for the good of their own company. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the current legislation regarding predatory pricing, determining when there is predation in an industry and the cause and effect relationship it has on an industry.
Price discrimination requires market segmentation and some means to discourage discount customers from becoming resellers and, by extension, competitors. This usually entails using one or more means of preventing any resale, keeping the different price groups separate, making price comparisons difficult, or restricting pricing information. The boundaries set up by the marketer to keep segments separate are referred to as a rate fence. Price discrimination is thus very common in services, where resale is not possible; an example is student discounts at museums.
usage of the market," within the Sale of Goods Act 1893 s. 22 (1) and,