Federal Trade Commission v. Universal-Rundle Corp. case brief

Federal Trade Commission v. Universal-Rundle Corp. case brief summary
387 U.S. 244 (1967)

CASE SYNOPSIS

Petitioner Federal Trade Commission challenged a decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, which postponed the operation of the Commission's cease-and-desist order against respondent corporation until an industry-wide investigation into alleged illegal price discrimination schemes by its competitors was completed.

CASE FACTS
The Federal Trade Commission found that the corporation engaged in price discrimination that violated § 2(a) of the Clayton Act, 15 U.S.C.S. § 13(a), by offering price discounts to some customers who purchased large truckload quantities of respondent's products, and not offering such discounts to competitors of those customers who purchased in smaller quantities. A cease-and-desist order was entered against the corporation, which it later sought to stay by alleging that its competitors engaged in similar price discrimination schemes and that an industry-wide investigation into such schemes was warranted.

DISCUSSION

• The court of appeals postponed operation of the order, but the Supreme Court reversed. 
• It concluded the Commission had not abused its discretion by refusing to stay the order because the evidence presented by respondent in support of its motion to stay only indicated that its competitors offered truckload quantity discounts. 
• There was no evidence the corporation's competitors offered the discounts to a favored group of customers in competition with a nonfavored group, which was the basis for the Commission's finding that the corporation's scheme had an anticompetitive effect.

OUTCOME

The order was reversed.

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