Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-02-24
REVISION OF TRADE
RULES PREDICTED
Codes of Business Conduct
May Be Changed by Fed
eraI Commission.
BY J. c. ROYLE.

A revision of the trade practice rules
established in 127 industries in this
country is extremely likely as result
of the action of the Federal Trade
Commission. That was the opinion ex-
pressed today by leaders in a score of
industries, which have adopted codes
of business conduct approved by the
commission.
The commission on February with
drew it's approval from Is of 81 rules
of the code of practices for marketing
refined petroleum products This &C
ton was taken without any previous
notification to the industry. Approx
mately 10000 marketers of petroleum
products had subscribed to this code.
The American Petroleum Institute pc
titioned that the ruling of the COM
mission be suspended until April 8,
1881, and the industry will operate I'M
der the code up to that time. This
code was put into effect first July %,
1923, and approved officially a year
later.
Institute Meeting.
The Petroleum Institute will hold
meeting at Chicago on March TO
determine what action will be taken.
Three courses of conduct are under
consideration. 1t may be decided to
attempt to convince the Federal Trade
Commission that the present cooe
should be continued with or without re-
vision Another possibility is that
substitute code will be submitted to the
commission for approval. The industry,
in the third place, may decide to I'M
dertake to make the present code or
some substitute code effective without
approval of the commission. This, II
was felt, would result in the Submis-
sion of a friendly test suit in the courts
IL the Department of Justice decided
that it was necessary and gave its con-
sent. The action of the petroleum m
dustry will have decided effect on the
course pursued by other industries SUBJ
iect to alteration of codes under the
new policy of the commission. The ~
rules of the petroleum code are d.
vided into two groups. The frst are
those which are enforceable under the
laws of the country. The second group
are rules of fair play, which should be
regarded as good business policy on
the part of any merchant.
Members of the commission say that
the fact that the petroleum INDUSTRY
was not notified that approval would
be withdrawn from the code was mere
oversight. They assert that they nave
come to the conclusion of the 3 rules
ont of the FL. 2 of which were rewrit-
ten. are all to which they will extend
their approval The commissioners have
let it be known that they have no in
tention of reconsidering their action,
believing the other rules Ill advised.
The first seven rules are enforceable
under the Clayton and Sherman acts.
They provide among other things that
companies must not pay sign rental or
make other allowances for displaying
advertising at service stations. Com
pany-owned service stations or sites
NAV be leased to dealers only on the
basis of a reasonable return on the val
uation of the property. Gasoline is not
to be sold from tank wagons or trucks 10
motor vehicles except in emergencies.
No oil is TO be given away or special
inducements granted on opening days,
special sales or other occasions. Prices
of products must be posted conspic-
uously.
Would Destroy Procedure.
IF the commission adheres To its
previously announced intention to with
draw its approval of the petroleum
rules" it was stated by w. r. BOYD, IT.,
executive vice president of the Amerl-
can Petroleum Institute 1T is equiva-
lent to a reversal of policy which means
that the commission will rescind its
approval of all those rules heretofore
approved for all other industries which
are not specific violations OF either the
Sherman law or the Clayton act. In
effect, this will mean complete destruc-
ton of the trade practice conference
procedure of the commission, because
the adoption by an industry and APP
prevail by the commission of rules which
merely quote the language of the law
will be Valueless to any industry" The
commissioners let it be known today
that they had not in contemplation at
this time any revision of other trade
practice codes.
Copyright, 1879