Source: https://franbuslaw.com/blog/category/business-law/
Timestamp: 2019-04-21 08:28:10+00:00

Document:
In 1925, the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”) was enacted to strengthen the ability of parties to enforce “purely voluntary” pre-dispute promises to have disputes determined through arbitration. See, e.g., David S. Clancy & Matthew M.K. Stein, An Uninvited Guest: Class Arbitration and the Federal Arbitration Act’s Legislative History, 63 Bus. Law. 55, 60-61 (Nov. 2007). In the decades since, countless federal and state statutes have been passed to protect consumers, employees, franchisees, small businesses and investors, and class and collective lawsuits have developed as an avenue to vindicate those statutory rights. In response, companies have used arbitration clauses to decrease the risks of having to defend against such large potential liabilities. Recent decisions by both the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court have emphasized that, if the arbitration clause clearly bars class or collective actions, then the FAA precludes parties to the agreement from pursuing a class or group action through court or arbitration. This established trend of statutory interpretation also may be increasing the possibility of that the U.S. Congress will pass the “Arbitration Fairness Act” to limit companies’ ability to use arbitration clauses as a bar to collective legal actions.
In the case of Muriithi v. Shuttle Express, Inc., issued April 1, 2013, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit required individual arbitration of claims due to a franchise agreement’s inclusion of an arbitration clause 1) forbidding any class or group actions, 2) requiring the parties to split the cost of arbitration, and 3) containing a one-year limitations provision.
Plaintiff Samuel Muriithi was a driver for defendant Shuttle Express, who provided transportation for passengers to and from the Baltimore-Washington International Airport. Muriithi filed a class action in federal court against Shuttle Express asserting claims under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and under Maryland law on behalf of himself and all other Shuttle Express drivers. Muriihi alleged that Shuttle Express misled the drivers about the compensation they would earn, inducing them to sign franchise agreements when they would be employees as a matter of law. Shuttle Express moved to dismiss the complaint, or in the alternative, to compel arbitration under the arbitration provision. The district court refused to compel arbitration on the grounds that the agreement contained three unconscionable provisions, which rendered the arbitration clause unenforceable. On appeal, the Fourth Circuit reversed the district court’s decision, holding that all three provisions at issue were not unconscionable and, therefore, the arbitration clause was enforceable.
In addressing the enforceability of the class action waiver, the Fourth Circuit rejected the district court’s decision, which identified the class action waiver as a factor in preventing Muriihi from “fully vindicating his statutory rights.” The Fourth Circuit explained that, subsequent to the district court’s decision, the U.S. Supreme Court addressed the issue of class action waivers in AT&T Mobility LLV v. Concepcion, 131 S. Ct. 1740 (2011). According to the court, the FAA, as interpreted in the Concepcion decision and prior Supreme Court rulings, “prohibited courts from altering otherwise valid arbitration agreements by applying the doctrine of unconscionability to eliminate a term barring classwide procedures.” Because the district court reached an opposite conclusion prior to Concepcion, the Fourth Circuit reversed the district court’s decision, finding the class action waiver enforceable.
The Fourth Circuit then addressed the enforceability of the fee-splitting provision. The court found that Muriithi failed to meet his “substantial” burden of showing the likelihood of incurring prohibitive costs as required to invalidate an arbitration agreement. The court explained that a fee-splitting provision has the ability to render an arbitration agreement unenforceable if the arbitration costs are “so prohibitive as to effectively deny the employee access to the arbitral forum.” According to the court, a number of factors are considered when determining prohibitive costs including, “the costs and fees of arbitration, the claimant’s ability to pay, the value of the claim, and the difference between arbitration and litigation.” The court concluded that Muriithi did not meet his substantial burden for proving prohibitive costs because he failed to show the costs of arbitration, “the most basic element” of the challenge. The court further explained that Muriihi could not meet his burden “simply by showing the fees that some arbitrators are charging somewhere.” Muriithi also failed to show the value of his claims, which were necessary to determine the fees under the American Arbitration Association’s rules. Because Murihhi failed to prove these “critical factors”, the Fourth Circuit concluded that he had failed to meet the substantial burden required for a finding of prohibitive costs.
Finally, the Fourth Circuit held that the one-year limitations provision could not be considered in a motion to compel arbitration because it was “not referenced in the Arbitration Clause.” The court referred to Section 2 of the FAA, which states that a party challenging the enforceability of an arbitration clause must rely on grounds that “relate specifically to the arbitration clause and not just to the contract as a whole.” The court stated that the one-year limitations provision related to the general agreement itself rather than the arbitration clause because the language and terms of the provision “did not overlap” with the language of contract’s arbitration clause. Therefore, its enforceability was an issue to be decided by the arbitrator and could not be considered in the motion to compel arbitration.
In American Express Co. v. Italian Colors Restaurant, No. 12-133 (June 20, 2013), the U.S. Supreme Court, by a 5-4 majority, held that the prohibitively high cost of pursuing an individual claim is not a sufficient reason to invalidate a class action waiver in an arbitration agreement. This decision reinforces Concepcion in demonstrating the Court’s willingness to allow arbitration clauses to be used as class action avoidance mechanisms. This ruling also validates the Fourth Circuit’s interpretation of Concepcion in its Shuttle Express decision.
American Express (“Amex”) requires all of its merchants to enter into a standard form contract. These agreements contain arbitration provisions that require all disputes between the parties to be resolved by arbitration and prohibit all class action claims. In this case, a group of merchants filed individual claims against Amex, claiming that Amex used its “monopoly power” to force them into contractual agreements that violate anti-trust laws. Amex moved to dismiss and to compel arbitration. The district court agreed with Amex, and the merchants appealed. On appeal, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed, finding the class action waiver unenforceable because the costs that an individual merchant would incur to pursue its claim would substantially exceed the amount of that individual merchant’s damages. The Supreme Court reversed the Second Circuit’s decision.
Justice Scalia, writing for the narrow majority, emphasized that the “overarching principle” of arbitration is a matter of contract, and that courts must “rigorously enforce” arbitration agreements by their expressed terms unless the FAA’s mandate has been “overridden by a contrary congressional command.” The majority failed to find any contrary congressional command that would require a rejection of the class action waiver. According to the Court, antitrust laws do not guarantee that a claim will be resolved affordably, nor do they “evince[e] an intention to preclude a waiver” of class-action procedure.
The Court rejected the merchants’ argument that enforcing the waiver of class arbitration bars effective vindication because merchants have no economic incentive to pursue their antitrust claims individually in arbitration. The Court declined to apply the “effective vindication” exception to the case at hand on the grounds that the exception’s purpose is to prevent “prospective waiver of a party’s right to pursue statutory remedies.” The Court explained that not being worth the costs to prove a statutory remedy is not an elimination of the right to pursue that remedy. In other words, according to the Court, class action waivers merely limit arbitration to the two contracting parties and do not eliminate parties’ rights to pursue statutory remedies.
In Justice Kagan’s dissent, she emphasized that the purpose of the FAA is to resolve disputes and facilitate compensation of injuries. According to Justice Kagan, the majority’s decision “admirably flaunt[s]” the fact that monopolists get to use their power to force merchants into contracts that deprive them of all legal recourse. “Too darn bad,” says Justice Kagan, as she describes the majority’s decision in a nutshell. Justice Kagan explains that the majority’s decision offers support to parties who intend to confer immunity from potentially meritorious federal claims through arbitration clauses in standardized form “contracts of adhesion”, which is contrary to the purpose of the FAA as enacted in 1925.
In light of the body of U.S. Supreme Court precedent in this issue, nearly all parties offering contracts to large groups of similarly situated persons such as employees, franchisees, and consumers of services, should strongly consider including an arbitration provision in the contract that explicitly bars class or collective actions. Under current law, those waivers will almost certainly be enforced and therefore sharply limit the likelihood that the company will have to defend against large-scale litigation brought by disaffected members of such groups. Such arbitration clauses do need to be carefully drafted and implemented to avoid other defenses to their enforcement, and they should be prepared and implemented with the assistance of experienced counsel.
Of course, ubiquitous arbitration clauses and these judicial decisions sharply limit the ability of private practice attorneys to deter violations of protective statutes through civil dispute resolution, leaving an even greater burden of enforcement on overburdened government regulators. This is unlikely to change unless the FAA is amended through legislation. In recent years, the “Arbitration Fairness Act” has been pending in the U.S. Congress. This act would invalidate the enforceability of pre-dispute arbitration clauses with regard to employment, consumer, and civil rights disputes, and antitrust class action proceedings. The bill has been languishing in recent years, and it remains to be seen whether the Supreme Court’s latest decision spurs more aggressive Congressional action on this issue.
AUTHOR’S NOTE: THIS ARTICLE WAS CO-WRITTEN BY DAVID L. CAHN, CHAIR OF THE FRANCHISE BUSINESS LAW GROUP AT WHITEFORD TAYLOR & PRESTON, AND KATELYN P. VU, WHO IS A SUMMER ASSOCIATE AT THE FIRM AND A 2015 J.D. CANDIDATE AT UNIVERSITY OF BALTIMORE LAW SCHOOL.
PLEASE ALSO NOTE THAT THIS ARTICLE REPRESENTS THE VIEWS OF THE AUTHORS AND NOT THE VIEWS OF WHITEFORD TAYLOR & PRESTON L.L.P.
In Ford v. Palmden Restaurants, LLC, the Court of Appeals of California issued a strong reminder to both restaurant franchisees and their franchisors of their potential liability for criminal conduct that takes place on a restaurant’s premises. While the legal principles at issue differ for franchisees and franchisors, this potential liability is one that neither can ignore.
In March 2003, there was a significant brawl around 2 a.m. at the restaurant, instigated by members of Gateway. The fight involved injuries to “innocent” female patrons, overturned furniture and a broken window. Police officers recommended to the owner of Palmden that she take several security measures, including installing video cameras and hiring off-duty uniformed police officers. Palmden closed the restaurant for the early a.m. hours only during the first weekend after the brawl, and thereafter Gateway resumed its “take overs.” Palmden did not install security cameras, hire off-duty police officers or take other new substantive security measures.
Could the Franchisee Be Liable for the Patron’s Injuries?
The trial court had granted summary judgment in favor of Palmden, finding that it could not be liable for the harms caused by the criminal acts of the Gateway gang members. The appeals court disagreed and reversed, sending the case back for trial.
Therefore, Palmden’s failure to act may have been a substantial cause of Ford’s injuries and Ford had a right to have a jury decide Palmden’s liability.
The court also reversed summary judgment in favor of the landlord, Denny’s, Inc., the parent company Denny’s Corporation and other affiliates, on the basis that they might be “alter egos” of the franchisor DFO, LLC. The trial court had granted summary judgment for those entities without analysis and they had not provided the appeals court with support in favor of keeping them out of the case.
If you own a restaurant you have a duty to your patrons and employees to establish security that is reasonable under the circumstances. If the circumstances are as dire as described in this case, your best course of action is to close the restaurant during the dangerous hours, and if you need permission build the case for doing so in writing directed to your franchisor and/or landlord.
If you are a restaurant franchisor, at a minimum make sure that each restaurant has a conspicuous sign identifying who owns the restaurant, as an independent licensee of your company. If the restaurant is run by your affiliate company, then that affiliate should be identified just like a franchisee. Seek to include the words “independently owned” in any local advertising. For casual dining establishments, consider including a place in the menu template to identify the owner, perhaps underneath the logo.
Contingency Planning For The Business Owner – Are You Covered?
Most of the work that I do for franchise owners (or “franchisees”) falls into two categories: (1) helping to evaluate a potential franchise opportunity and negotiating the franchise agreement and real estate lease, and (2) representing franchisees seeking to exit the franchise, including evaluating claims against the franchisor. While grateful to serve in those capacities, I worry whether franchisees and other small business owners are adequately planning for and protecting against their own death or disability.
1.	Will: Why do you need a will? Without one, after you die the laws of the state where you live and held property will determine what happens to that property. Your spouse, children or other heirs could end up with less than you planned, the assets could be mismanaged, your minor children might not have the guardian you wished, or your estate could end up paying more in taxes and legal fees than necessary. Writing a will allows you to control who gets what, and also could enable you to leave some of your assets to charities or other causes. Clarity is particularly important if you own a business since succession planning is critical to the wellbeing of the business’s employees and other stakeholders.
2.	Titling of Assets: How you hold title to certain assets can have a significant effect on the ability of your creditors to take away those assets. If you are married, holding an asset in the names of yourself and your spouse may prevent a creditor of only one of you from taking that asset. However, this is often more appropriate for personal assets (such as homes and cars) than ownership interests in a business. If you are not married then there are other legal devices that, under appropriate circumstances, could enable you to shield assets from seizure if your financial fortunes decline.
3.	Durable Power of Attorney: A power of attorney (“POA”) designates a representative to perform certain actions on your behalf. A durable POA can be particularly important if you are a small business owner, to make sure that the business is able to function on your behalf if you become ill, incapacitated or otherwise unable to manage your affairs, since otherwise your chosen representative (usually a spouse, parent or sibling) will have to receive court approval to perform needed financial transactions. However, the durable POA also needs to be crafted with some care to avoid any abuse by the appointed representative.
4.	Living Will and Medical Proxy: A living will is a written declaration of what life-sustaining medical treatments you will allow or not allow if you are incapacitated; for example, life-sustaining nourishment when terminally ill. The medical proxy or medical POA authorizes a specific individual to make medical decisions for you if you are unable to do so.
5.	Letters of Instruction: In this digital age a lot of our personal and digital information is saved electronically in password-protected accounts. After your death the person you chose to manage your estate (your “personal representative”) will benefit greatly from written instructions on how to access those accounts. Since the will itself is meant to cover the disposition of categories of property, the letters of instruction can aid your personal representative in disposing of specific pieces of property (such as family heirlooms) in the manner that you wish.
6.	Life Insurance Trust. One common trust for people of even relatively modest means is a trust to hold life insurance policies. Estates with net assets of over $1,000,000 are subject to the estate taxes in Maryland and several other states, and the federal (U.S.) estate tax threshold has been moved several times in recent years but may move down to $1,000,000 effective January 1, 2013. Utilizing an irrevocable trust to hold your life insurance policy excludes their death benefits from your estate, which may allow your estate to be completely exempt from taxation.
Estate planning is not just for people like Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey or Mark Zuckerberg – it is necessary for all reasonably successful adults and particularly for franchise owners. At Whiteford Taylor & Preston we have a talented team of estates and trust attorneys licensed in Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and the District of Columbia who can assist you on the types of issues described above at either fixed fees or reasonable hourly rates. Contact us so we can help you make sure that your bases are covered.
Employees shall have the right to self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations, to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, and to engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection . . .
U.S. Code, Title 29, Section 157.
In several cases, the NLRB has found that an employer’s social media policy has in fact been applied to restrict the exercise of Section 7 rights, and required the employer to reinstate employees terminated due to their Facebook postings and subsequent responses by Facebook friends. For example, after an employee of a collections agency was transferred to a different position that would substantially limit her earning capacity, she posted on her Facebook page that her employer had “messed up” (using expletives) and that she was “done with being a good employee.” The employee was Facebook friends with approximately 10 current and former coworkers, including her direct supervisor. An extensive exchange ensued among the coworkers regarding the employer’s management methods and preference for cheap labor, culminating with one of the former employees calling for a class action among the disaffected workers.
In other recent cases brought before it, the NLRB has concluded that, while the complaining former employee was not unlawfully discharged due to his or her online postings, the employer’s policy itself violated the NLRA and needed to be modified. In response to this, the NLRB recently issued a report summarizing its decisions specifically on acceptable social media policies, and perhaps most importantly, has in essence provided a sample policy that it has deemed to be lawful. The policy, as amended by Wal-Mart after the initiation of an NLRB complaint regarding its prior policy, focuses fairly narrowly on refraining from posts that “include discriminatory remarks, harassment and threats of violence” or are “meant to intentionally harm someone’s reputation.” While the policy forbids dissemination of the company’s confidential information, it provides a sufficient specific definition of “trade secrets” to put employees on notice that the policy (probably) does not include internal reports or procedures specifically touching on conditions of employment. Perhaps most importantly, the policy expressly acknowledges that employees may post work-related complaints and criticism, even while discounting the possibility that such posts are likely to result in changes that the employee seeks.
If your company has a social media policy, we can review it for purposes of conforming it to the NLRB’s latest guidance on acceptable policies and help you avoid future problems that could result from overly broad restrictions on employee’s online conduct. Of course, as specific situations arise we are available to counsel you as to legally appropriate measures to take in response to employee’s online conduct.
Can I Stop “Bargain Basement Pricing” of My Branded Products?
While the continuous growth of Internet-based commerce has to lower prices for many consumer shopping for goods, it has been a major problem for many “bricks and mortar” retailers and also has caused concerns for product manufacturers who want to insure quality experiences for customers purchasing their goods. The question is the extent to which manufacturers may, under applicable U.S. anti-trust and competition law, take steps to protect the image of their brand as well as stopping the “e-tailers” from “free-riding” on the promotion efforts of traditional retailers.
U.S. law applicable to manufacturer’s application of retail pricing requirements has been in flux since the Supreme Court’s decision in Leegin Creative Leather Products, Inc v. PSKS, Inc., 127 S. Ct. 2705 (2007). In that decision, the Court overruled the holding in Dr. Miles Medical Co. v. John D. Park & Sons Co., 31 S. Ct. 376 (1911), that any agreement not to sell a product at below a specific minimum price was per se illegal under Section 1 of the Sherman Act, the U.S.’s primary antitrust statute.
In Leegin, the Court ruled that, in determining whether Section 1 of the Sherman Act is violated by a series of express agreements in which dealers promise not to sell a manufacturer’s product at below a specific retail price, courts would apply the so-called “Rule of Reason” to determine whether such an agreement actually causes harm to competition. To boil this down, such an agreement will not violate U.S. antitrust law if (a) the manufacturer does not have more than 25% market share for the sale of that type of product, and (b) the minimum pricing program is not the result of the demands of a single dominant retailer or an agreement among retailers purchasing a substantial percentage of the goods to demand that the manufacturer adopt such policies (as opposed to individual retailers’ complaints).
An example of the “dealer cartel” scenario was a 2008 ruling in Toledo Mack Sales & Service, Inc. v. Mack Trucks, Inc., in which Mack Trucks terminated a dealer who repeatedly sought sales of products in other dealer’s primary service areas by undercutting the local dealers on price. After numerous dealers complained about that specific discounter, and after Mack demanded that the discounter comply with pricing guidelines, Mack Trucks finally ceases supplying the discounter. Because Mack Trucks does have appreciable market power nationally in heavy construction equipment, the U.S. District Court refused to grant Mack summary judgment and the Third Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that decision.
A fact pattern in which a dominant retailer allegedly coercing several manufacturers into minimum pricing requirements is a 2008 ruling in Babyage.com, Inc. v. Toys “R” Us, Inc., which a court refused to dismiss a claim by an Internet retailer involving alleged actions by “Babies ‘R’ Us“ with regard to the sale of strollers and other baby products. Specifically, Babies ‘R’ Us allegedly threatened to cease buying the manufacturers’ items or to give them extremely unfavorable shelf space and promotion unless the manufacturer enforced a minimum RPM program with regard to Internet retailers. Because Babies ‘R’ Us has sufficient market power to coerce the manufacturers with such threats, its actions may have harmed competition at the consumer level and therefore violated the Sherman Act.
If a manufacturer has appreciable market power in a product market, then the risk of a series of minimum RPM agreements increases, particularly if manufacturers that also have substantial market share implement similar minimum RPM agreements and this “parallel conduct” causes an overall increase in pricing for “high-quality” apparel of this type. Such contracts may still be permissible under U.S. antitrust law if the manufacturer can demonstrate that it is driven by the desire to maintain the brand’s profile in high end (and high volume) traditional retail outlets, which would not be possible without such a program. If it can make the business case that such a move actually will result in higher total volume sales on a wholesale basis, then such contract clauses may be “pro-competitive” as envisioned by the Supreme Court in Leegin.
Yes, but What About State Antitrust Laws?
As the Supreme Court emphasized in a 1989 opinion, “Congress intended the federal antitrust laws to supplement, not displace, state antitrust remedies”, and states are free to enact laws that further the purposes embodied by U.S. anti-trust law of “deterring anticompetitive conduct and ensuring the compensation of victims of that conduct.” California v. ARC America Corp., 490 U.S. 93 (1989). In somewhere between 11 and 14 different U.S. states, including California, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, New York, New Jersey and Ohio, it is illegal to enter into any contract requiring another party to agree to not to sell a product or service below a specific price. The manufacturer cannot enforce an express minimum RPM agreement with any retailer that is headquartered in any of those states, and it is possible that such retailers could prevail in a state law civil antitrust claim if the manufacturer refuses to sell and the retailer can prove damages from not being able to obtain the manufacturer’s products.
There are alternate theories under which a Kansas restraint of trade plaintiff may proceed [under the state’s statute]: A plaintiff may prove the existence of an arrangement, contract, agreement, trust, or combination between persons designed to advance, reduce, or control price, or one that tends to advance, reduce, or control price. Mere arrangements between persons are within the scope of the statute; a plaintiff does not have to show a relationship rising to the level of an agreement. In addition, it is enough to show that the arrangement is designed to or tends to control prices; a plaintiff does not have to show that the arrangement actually succeeds in increasing prices.
It remains to be seen whether other states with statutes that more specifically address resale price maintenance follow this opinion and find that a practice intended to maintain a brand’s retail pricing is a violation, even if it is not embodied in a formal agreement between the manufacturer and its retailers.
If a manufacturer sells at wholesale through purchase orders or other less formal means than written dealer agreements, there is little need for any reciprocal written agreement with retailers. Instead, in accepting purchase orders a manufacturer might unilaterally state, “Our products will be delivered to you with minimum suggested retail pricing (“MSRP”) for each item. If you sell any of our products at below the MSRP, we reserve the right to refuse to supply you with our products at wholesale in the future.” Such a policy is not a considered a “contract, combination or conspiracy” in restraint of trade, but rather the unilateral act of the seller. United States v. Colgate, 250 U.S. 300 (1919). See also, Australian Gold, Inc. v. Hatfield, 436 F.3d 1228, 1236 (10th Cir. 2006) (holding that similar “rights reserved” language in a standard written, bilateral distributor agreement constituted unilateral action permissible under Colgate).
California and New York courts have confirmed that proper implementation of a Colgate policy is not a violation of their state antitrust laws. State of New York v. Tempur-pedic International, Inc., 916 N.Y.S.2d 900 (N.Y. County Sup. Ct. 2011) and Chavez v. Whirlpool Corporation 93 Cal. App. 4th 363 (Cal. Ct. App. 2001). However, the New York Attorney General’s office appeal of the adverse trial court ruling in Temper-pedic is currently pending.
Another method of mitigating risks is to use a Minimum Advertised Price (“MAP”) policy, rather than MSRP. Such a policy would merely restrict the advertising of the product for sale below a specific price. It does not restrict retailers from discounting at checkout, whether at a physical location or the “shopping cart” of a website, if the discounting is evenly applied to all goods sold by the retailer and is not specific to the manufacturer’s products.
There are disadvantages to using a Colgate policy. First, the manufacturer cannot offer more favorable pricing or terms for retailers who explicitly agree to adhere to the MSRP, since that would turn the policy into a bilateral agreement. Second, the manufacturer’s sole remedy is to cease selling to the retailer without issuing any additional warning. Confronting the retailer and demanding that it comply with policy risks waiving the Colgate defense to a claim of unlawful conspiracy, particularly if (as is usually the case) the confrontation is prompted by complaining dealers. Under Colgate, the manufacturer is free to “cut off” the discounter after receiving complaints from other retailers (subject to the “dealer cartel” issue explained above), but it cannot try to coerce the “violator” into complying.
Kansas Supreme Court’s decision in O’Brien v. Leegin Creative Leather Products, Inc. demonstrates the difficulty of proving that a pricing program’s implementation was truly “unilateral” by the manufacturer. While acknowledging that truly unilateral conduct by “Brighton” by issuing a pricing policy and then cutting off violating retailers would not prove a “combination” that is necessary to violate Kansas’ antitrust law. However, the Court found that two emails from Brighton’s chief operating officer to retailers, one denying a retailer’s request to offer discounted pricing and another explaining why compliance with the policy was important for all retailers of Brighton products, was sufficient evidence to show a knowing “arrangement” between Brighton and independent retailers to maintain the prices paid by consumers to Brighton’s suggested retail price. That court was clearly influenced by the facts that Brighton has a substantial direct to consumer retail sales division, including its own retail stores in Kansas, and also that Brighton “cut off” at least one Kansas retailer after receiving complaints about its discount pricing from another independent Kansas retailer.
The one “inducement” that a manufacturer may be able to provide and remain within the Colgate exemption is promotional assistance to retailers who comply with MSRP or the MAP policy. If the manufacturer catches one of the retailers violating the policy, it can inform that retailer that it is no longer eligible for the allowance. The manufacturer should not “bargain” with the retailer after sending such a notice, i.e., agreeing to resume the assistance if the retailer agrees to comply with the policy. It can continue to supply the retailer and monitor its retail pricing and sales practices, and if that retailer starts complying then the manufacturer can resume providing promotional assistance. However, this type of program may be risky to use in the states identified above in which RPM programs are or may be per se unlawful.
Even if individual retailers’ complaints (or threats) have led the manufacturer to decide to implement an MSRP or MAP policy, when implementing the policy the manufacturer should make clear to all of its wholesale customers that they are not to discuss retail pricing among themselves and that the manufacturer has the exclusive right to determine what steps to take if a customer does not comply with the policy. The manufacturer should then put in place a program to monitor compliance with the policy, either through internal staff or through a third party monitor. These steps are important to avoid converting a vertical manufacturer to retailer restraint into a horizontal conspiracy with complaining retailers that could be a per se violation of U.S. antitrust law. This is especially true if the manufacturer also sells direct to consumers on a retail basis.
As an attorney licensed in Maryland and the District of Columbia, I am qualified to provide a summary on U.S. anti-trust law as it concerns this subject, whereas I do not provide legal advice on other countries’ competition laws. However, as a general matter most other countries have yet to follow Leegin and continue to treat any manufacturer practices designed to set minimum retail price levels as per se illegal, and given that disposition are unlikely to look favorably on Colgate-like arguments regarding unilateral conduct in “cutting off” a seller who sells below the desired minimum price. In addition, European courts have issued decisions indicating that restrictions on the re-sale of products through the Internet will generally be considered violations of European competition law. See Pierre Fabre Dermo-Cosmétique SAS (European Court of Justice, March 3, 2011).
There is some basis for a position that the competition laws of other countries will not be applicable to vertical pricing restraints in which both the manufacturer and their wholesale customers are small enterprises that do not have substantial market share in the relevant product types. However, an analysis of the applicable law of the foreign jurisdictions must be made through qualified counsel before a manufacturer pursues any programs to restrict minimum retail price.

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