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Bribery And Brokerage: An Analysis Of Bribery In Domestic And Foreign Commerce Under Section 2 ( C ) Of The Robinson-Patman Act, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This Note first analyzes the substantive and jurisdictional criteria of section 2(c) to evaluate the possible and the desirable scope of its applicability to commercial bribery. The Note next asks whether this statute reaches bribery of domestic and foreign government officials and concludes that where the requirements of section 2(c) are otherwise met and where the person accepting the bribe is acting administratively rather than politically, the statute could be applied to bribery of agents of domestic governments. However, a wholesale application of section 2( c) to bribery of foreign government agents would leave American competitors in foreign commerce defenseless …

Recent Antitrust Developments-1964, Milton Handler

Michigan Law Review

Ever since the passage of the Sherman Act, the courts have consistently refused to permit the requirements of antitrust to be circumvented by the easy expedient of dressing a sale in the vestments of a sham agency agreement. In Dr. Miles Medical, where the Supreme Court first held vertical price fixing unlawful, the seller and buyer denominated their agreement as an "agency," but the Court properly concluded that it was, in fact, a sale. Likewise, in Standard-Magrane, the first occasion on which the Court considered section of the Clayton Act, the seller purported to appoint his customers as …

Trade Regulation-Robinson-Patman Act-Price Discrimination In The Marketing Of Gasoline, Howard R. Lurie S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The emergence of chain stores and mail-order houses in the 1920's posed a new threat to competition; this time at the retail level. The quantity purchase discounts which large buyers could exact placed the small independent merchant at a competitive disadvantage so substantial as to cast doubt upon his continued presence in the competitive picture. To prevent these competitive advantages, which were felt to be unfair and undesirable, Congress, in 1936, passed the Robinson-Patman Act which, in part, amended section 2 of the Clayton Act. The effect of the amendment was to tighten the application of the quantity purchase defense …

Regulation Of Business - Robinson-Patman Act - Injury To Competition Between Buyers Of Auto Parts, A. Duncan Whitaker S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Petitioner manufactured and sold automobile parts to distributors who resold them to jobbers in interstate commerce. The products were classified into three lines: leaf spring line, coil action line, and piston ring line. A progressive, cumulative discount was given in each line, based upon the aggregate yearly purchases of either a single buyer or a group-buying organization. The Federal Trade Commission charged petitioner with price discrimination in violation of the Robinson-Patman Act. Every customer who testified at the hearing denied that he had been injured competitively by the petitioner's pricing practices. Nevertheless, in view of the substantial price differentials, the …

Antitrust Policy In Distribution, Kendall B. Debevoise

Michigan Law Review

The American genius lies quite as much in distribution as in manufacturing. Other peoples have demonstrated equal or greater creative ability in many fields. And it is debatable whether their talents are any less at mass production given adequate economic demand. But they have nowhere shown the American genius for distribution. It is axiomatic that if you manufacture in Detroit and your potential customer lives in New York, you need mutual friends. We seem to have figured out better ways to provide better friends for this purpose than any other nation.

But manufacturing came first. Someone had to build a …

Regulation Of Business - Proof Of Seller's Costs In Robinson-Patman Act Buyer Proceedings, Arthur M. Wisehart S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The purposes of this comment are to analyze the holding of the Court in the Automatic Canteen case and to relate the language of the opinion to the more general problem of defining the extent of buyer responsibility under section 2(f). As a preliminary matter, however, it is necessary to examine the pertinent statutory provisions. Section 2(f) of the Robinson-Patman Act makes it unlawful for buyers in interstate commerce" ... knowingly to induce or receive a · discrimination in price which is prohibited by this section." In other words, it prohibits buyers from knowingly inducing or receiving the benefit of …