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UNITED STATES V. UNITED STATES GYPSUM CO., 438 U. S. 422 (1978) - US SUPREME COURT DECISIONS ON-LINE
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Several major gypsum board manufacturers and various of their officials were indicted for violations of § 1 of the Sherman Act by allegedly engaging in a price-fixing conspiracy. One of the types of actions allegedly taken in formulating and effectuating the conspiracy was interseller price verification, i.e., the practice of telephoning a competing manufacturer to determine the price being currently offered on gypsum board to a specific customer. After some of the defendants pleaded nolo contendere and were sentenced, the remaining defendants were convicted after a trial of some 19 weeks. The Government's case focused on the interseller price verification charge, which the defendants defended on the ground that the price information exchanges were to enable them to take advantage of the "meeting competition" defense contained in § 2(b) of the Clayton Act, as amended by the Robinson-Patman Act (which permits a seller to rebut a prima facie price discrimination charge by showing that a lower price to a purchaser was made in good faith to meet an equally low price of a competitor). On the verification issue, tho trial judge charged the jury that, if the price information exchanges were found to have been undertaken in good faith to comply with the Robinson-Patman Act, verification alone would not suffice to establish an illegal price-fixing agreement, but that, if the jury found that the effect of verification was to fix prices, then the parties would be presumed, as a matter of law, to have intended that result. The judge further charged that, since only a single conspiracy was alleged, liability could only be predicated on the knowing involvement of each defendant, considered individually, in the conspiracy alleged, the judge having refused the defendants' requested charge directing the jury to determine what kind of agreement, if any, existed as to each defendant before any could be found to be a member of the conspiracy. With respect to the defendants' evidence as to withdrawal from the conspiracy, the judge instructed the jury that withdrawal had to be established by either affirmative notice to every other member of the conspiracy or by disclosure of the illegal enterprise to law enforcement officials. The judge chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
2. A good faith belief, rather than an absolute certainty, that a price concession is being offered to meet an equally low price offered by a competitor suffices to invoke the § 2(b) defense; exchanges of price information, even when putatively for the purpose of Robinson-Patman Act compliance, must remain subject to close scrutiny under the Sherman chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
BURGER, C J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which BRENNAN, MARSHALL, and WHITE, JJ., joined; in all but Part IV of which STEWART, J., joined; in Parts I, II, V, and a portion of Part III of which POWELL, J., joined; in Part I and a portion of Part V of which REHNQUIST, J., joined; and in all but Part II of which STEVENS, J., joined. POWELL, J., filed an opinion concurring in part, post, p. 438 U. S. 469. REHNQUIST, J., post, p. 438 U. S. 471, and STEVENS, J., post, p. 438 U. S. 474, filed opinions concurring in part and dissenting in part. BLACKMUN, J., took no part in the consideration or decision of the case. chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The gypsum board industry is highly concentrated, with the number of producers ranging from 9 to 15 in the period 1960-1973. The eight largest companies accounted for some 94% of the national sales, with the seven "single-plant producers" [Footnote 1] accounting for the remaining 6%. Most of the major producers and a large number of the single-plant producers are members of the Gypsum Association, which, since 1930, has served as a trade association of gypsum board manufacturers. chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The first skirmish in the protracted litigation of this case was a motion for dismissal filed by the defendants alleging that their due process rights had been denied because of unreasonable preindictment delay. The District Court, after holding a five-day evidentiary hearing on the motion, concluded that there was "no evidence of unreasonable delay on the part of the Government," 383 F.Supp. 462, 470 (WD Pa. 1974), and that the defendants were not "prejudiced to any extraordinary degree whatsoever by the chain of events leading to this indictment." Ibid. The District Court denied a motion to dismiss the indictment. Thereafter, nine of the defendants entered pleas of nolo contendere and were sentenced. [Footnote 3] The trial of the remaining seven defendants commenced on March 3, 1975, and lasted some 19 weeks. chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The instructions on the verification issue given by the trial judge provided that, if the exchanges of price information were deemed by the jury to have been undertaken "in a good faith effort to comply with the Robinson-Patman Act," verification, standing alone, would not be sufficient to establish an illegal price-fixing agreement. The paragraphs immediately following, however, provided that the purpose was essentially irrelevant if the jury found that the effect of verification was to raise, chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
On the matter of withdrawal from the conspiracy, defendants sought an instruction stating explicitly that evidence of vigorous price competition during the period covered by the indictment could be considered by the jury as indicating abandonment of the charged conspiracy by one or more of the defendants. Substantial evidence on this subject had been chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
On Monday, the court received yet another note from the jury, this time stating that the foreman wished to "discuss the condition of the Jury" and to seek "further guidance" from the judge. The judge suggested to counsel that he confer privately with the foreman and that a transcript of the meeting be kept, but impounded. The judge indicated that, if his suggestion was rejected he would simply deny the foreman's request for the meeting. In response to questions from counsel, the judge stated that the purpose of the meeting would be to determine if the jury was in serious physical condition, and chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Shortly thereafter, the foreman returned to the jury room and deliberations continued. The judge then informed counsel, in abbreviated fashion, what had transpired at the meeting with the foreman, and of his direction that the deliberations chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Two judges agreed that the trial judge erred in instructing the jury that an effect on prices resulting from an agreement to exchange price information made out a Sherman Act violation regardless of whether respondents' sole purpose in engaging in such exchanges was to establish a defense to price discrimination charges. Instead, they regarded such a purpose, if certain conditions were met, [Footnote 11] as constituting a "controlling chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
App. 1722. (Emphasis added.) chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
We agree with the Court of Appeals that an effect on prices, without more, will not support a criminal conviction under the Sherman Act, but we do not base that conclusion on the existence of any conflict between the requirements of the Robinson-Patman and the Sherman Acts. [Footnote 12] Rather, we hold that a defendant's state of mind or intent is an element of a criminal antitrust offense which must be established by evidence and inferences drawn therefrom, and cannot be taken from the trier of fact through reliance on a legal presumption of wrongful intent from proof of an effect on prices. Cf. Morissette v. United States, 342 U. S. 246, 342 U. S. 274-275 (1952). Since the challenged instruction, as we read it, had this prohibited chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
While strict liability offenses are not unknown to the criminal law, and do not invariably offend constitutional requirements, see Shevlin-Carpenter Co. v. Minnesota, 218 U. S. 57 (1910), the limited circumstances in which Congress has created and this Court has recognized such offenses, see e.g., chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The Sherman Act, unlike most traditional criminal statutes, does not, in clear and categorical terms, precisely identify the conduct which it proscribes. [Footnote 14] Both civil remedies and criminal sanctions are authorized with regard to the same generalized definitions of the conduct proscribed -- restraints of trade or commerce and illegal monopolization -- without reference to or mention of intent or state of mind. Nor has judicial elaboration of the Act always yielded the clear and definitive rules of conduct which the statute omits; instead open-ended and fact-specific standards like the "rule of reason" have been applied to broad classes of conduct falling within the purview of the Act's general provisions. See, e.g., Standard Oil Co. v. United States, 221 U. S. 1, 221 U. S. 60 (1911); 405 U. S. 607 (1972); Continental T.V., Inc. v. GTE Sylvania Inc., 433 U. S. 36, 433 U. S. 49 (1977). Simply put, the Act has not been interpreted as if it were primarily a criminal statute; it has been construed to have a "generality and adaptability comparable to that found to be desirable in constitutional provisions." Appalachian Coals, Inc. v. United States, 288 U. S. 344, 288 U. S. 359-360 (1933). See [email protected] 2 P. Areeda & D. Turner, Antitrust Law § 310 (1978).
Report of the Attorney General's National Committee to Study the Antitrust Laws 349 (1955). The Antitrust Division of the Justice Department took a similar, though slightly more moderate, position in its enforcement chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Close attention to the type of conduct regulated by the Sherman Act buttresses this conclusion. With certain exceptions for conduct regarded as per se illegal because of its unquestionably anticompetitive effects, see, e.g., United States v. Socony-Vacuum Oil Co., 310 U. S. 150 (1940), the behavior chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
proscribed by the Act is often difficult to distinguish from the gray zone of socially acceptable and economically justifiable business conduct. Indeed, the type of conduct charged in the indictment in this case -- the exchange of price information among competitors -- is illustrative in this regard. [Footnote 16] The imposition of criminal liability on a corporate official, or for that matter on a corporation directly, for engaging in such conduct which only after the fact is determined to violate the statute because of anticompetitive effects, without inquiring into the intent with which it was undertaken, holds out the distinct possibility of overdeterrence; salutary and procompetitive conduct lying close to the borderline of impermissible conduct might be shunned by businessmen who chose to be excessively cautious in the face of uncertainty regarding possible exposure to criminal punishment for even a good faith error of judgment. [Footnote 17] See 2 P. Areeda & D. Turner, Antitrust Law 29 chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
(1978); R. Bork, The Antitrust Paradox 78 (1978); Kadish, Some Observations On the Use of Criminal Sanctions in Enforcing Economic Regulations, 30 U.Chi.L.Rev. 423, 441-442 (1963). Further, the use of criminal sanctions in such circumstances would be difficult to square with the generally accepted functions of the criminal law. See Hart, The Aims of the Criminal Law, 23 Law & Contemp. Prob. 401, 422-425 (1958); ALI, Model Penal Code, Comment on § 2.05, p. 140 (Tent. Draft No. 4, 1955). The criminal sanctions would be used not to punish conscious and calculated wrongdoing at odds with statutory proscriptions, but instead simply to regulate business practices regardless of the intent with which they were undertaken. While, in certain cases, we have imputed a regulatory purpose to Congress in choosing to employ criminal sanctions, see, e.g., United States v. Balint, 258 U. S. 250 (192), the availability of a range of nonpenal alternatives to the criminal sanctions of the Sherman Act negates the imputation of any such purpose to Congress in the instant context. [Footnote 18] See generally Baker, To Indict or Not To Indict: chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Having concluded that intent is a necessary element of a criminal antitrust violation, the task remaining is to treat the practical aspects of this requirement. [Footnote 20] As we have noted, the language of the Act provides minimal assistance in determining what standard of intent is appropriate, and the sparse legislative chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The ALI Model Penal Code is one source of guidance upon which the Court has relied to illuminate questions of this type. Cf. Leary v. United States, 395 U. S. 6, 395 U. S. 46 n. 93 (1969); Turner v. United States, 396 U. S. 398, 396 U. S. 416 n. 29 (1970). Recognizing that "mens rea is not a unitary concept," United States v. Freed, 401 U.S. at 401 U. S. 613 (BRENNAN, J., concurring in judgment), the Code enumerates four possible levels of intent -- purpose, knowledge, recklessness, and negligence. In dealing with the kinds of business decisions upon which the antitrust laws focus, the concepts of recklessness and negligence have no place. Our question, instead, is whether a criminal violation of the antitrust laws requires, in addition to proof of anticompetitive effects, a demonstration that the disputed conduct was undertaken with the "conscious object" of producing such effects, or whether it is sufficient that the conduct is shown to have been undertaken with knowledge that the proscribed effects would most likely follow. While the difference between these formulations is a narrow one, see ALI, Model Penal Code, Comment on § 2.02, p. 125 (Tent.Draft No. 4, 1955), we conclude that action undertaken with knowledge of its probable consequences and having the requisite anticompetitive effects can be a sufficient predicate for a finding of criminal liability under the antitrust laws. [Footnote 21] chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Nothing in our analysis of the Sherman Act persuades us that this general understanding of intent should not be applied to criminal antitrust violations such as charged here. The business behavior which is likely to give rise to criminal antitrust charges is conscious behavior normally undertaken chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
When viewed in terms of this standard, the jury instructions on the price-fixing charge cannot be sustained. "A conclusive presumption [of intent] which testimony could not overthrow would effectively eliminate intent as an ingredient of the offense." Morissette, supra at 342 U. S. 275. The challenged jury instruction, as we read it, had precisely this effect; the jury was told that the requisite intent followed, as a matter of law, from a finding that the exchange of price information had an impact on prices. Although an effect on prices may well support an inference that the defendant had knowledge of the probability of such a consequence at the time he acted, the jury must remain free to consider additional evidence before accepting or rejecting the inference. Therefore, although it would be correct to instruct the jury that it may infer intent from an effect on prices, ultimately the decision on the issue of intent must be left to the trier of fact alone. The instruction given invaded this factfinding function. [Footnote 22] chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Our construction of the Sherman Act to require proof of intent as an element of a criminal antitrust violation leaves chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Since Container Corp., several courts have read the "controlling circumstance" exception as encompassing exchanges of price information when undertaken for the purpose of compliance with § 2(b) of the Clayton Act, as amended by the Robinson-Patman Act. See, e.g., Belliston v. Texaco, Inc., 455 F.2d 175, 181-182 (CA10 1972); Wall Products Co. v. National Gypsum Co., 326 F.Supp. 295, 312-315 (ND Cal.1971). [Footnote 25] The Court of Appeals in the instant case essentially adopted the same tack -- albeit with some additional limitations [Footnote 26] -- finding such a step necessary to eliminate a perceived conflict between the Sherman Act's proscriptions regarding the exchange of price information among competitors and the claimed necessity of such exchanges to perfect the § 2(b) defense. The Government challenges that resolution on two grounds: first, that there is no general "controlling circumstance" exception to the Sherman Act, and second, that, in any event, there is no conflict between the two antitrust statutes which would require the prohibitions of the Sherman Act to chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Staley's "investigate or verify" language, coupled with Corn Products' focus on "personal knowledge of the transactions," have apparently suggested to a number of courts that, at least in certain circumstances, direct verification of discounts between competitors may be necessary to meet the burden of proof requirements of the § 2(b) defense. See Gray v. Shell Oil Co., 469 F.2d 742, 746-747 (CA9 1972); Belliston v. Texaco, Inc., 455 F.2d 181-182; Webster v. Sinclair Refining Co., 338 F.Supp. 248, 251-252 (SD Ala. 1971); Wall Products Co. v. National Gypsum Co., 326 F.Supp. at 312-315; Di-Wall, Inc. v. Fibreboard Corp., 1970 Trade Cases ¦ 73, 155 (ND Cal.1970). In none of these cases were the courts called upon to address directly the question of whether interseller verification was actually required to satisfy § 2(b)'s good faith standard; instead, the issue was presented only obliquely in the form of a defense to the alleged Sherman Act violation. The Belliston and Webster cases accepted the defense despite the absence of evidence that alternative means of corroborating the claimed price reduction had been exhausted, while the Gray and Wall Products courts found the communication between sellers permissible only after other alternatives had been exhausted. [Footnote 27] The Court of Appeals critically and perceptively analyzed these cases and concluded that only a very narrow exception to Sherman Act liability should be recognized; that exception would cover the relatively few situations where the veracity of the buyer seeking the matching discount was legitimately in doubt, other chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
A good faith belief, rather than absolute certainty, that a price concession is being offered to meet an equally low price offered by a competitor is sufficient to satisfy the § 2(b) defense. While casual reliance on uncorroborated reports of buyers or sales representatives without further investigation may not, as we noted earlier, be sufficient to make the requisite showing of good faith, nothing in the language of § 2(b) or the gloss on that language in Staley and Corn Products indicates that direct discussions of price between competitors are required. Nor has any court, so far as we are aware, ever imposed such a requirement. [Footnote 28] See Rowe, Pricing and the Robinson-Patman Act, 41 A.B.A. Antitrust L.J. 98, 100 102 (1971); ABA Section of Antitrust Law, Antitrust Law Developments 145 n. 241 (1975). On the contrary, the § 2(b) defense has been successfully invoked in the absence of interseller verification on numerous occasions, see, e.g., International Air Industries, Inc. v. American Excelsior Co., 517 F.2d 714, 725-726 (CA5 1975); Cadigan v. Texaco, Inc., chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The so-called problem of the untruthful buyer which concerned the Court of Appeals does not, in our view, call for a different approach to the § 2(b) defense. The good faith standard remains the benchmark against which the seller's conduct is to be evaluated, and we agree with the Government and the FTC that this standard can be satisfied by efforts falling short of interseller verification in most circumstances where the seller has only vague, generalized doubts about the reliability of its commercial adversary -- the buyer. [Footnote 29] Given the chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
There remains the possibility that, in a limited number of situations, a seller may have substantial reasons to doubt the accuracy of reports of a competing offer, and may be unable to corroborate such reports in any of the generally accepted ways. Thus, the defense may be rendered unavailable, since unanswered chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Both economic theory and common human experience suggest that interseller verification -- if undertaken on an isolated and infrequent basis with no provision for reciprocity or cooperation -- will not serve its putative function of corroborating the representations of unreliable buyers regarding the existence of competing offers. Price concessions by oligopolists generally yield competitive advantages only if secrecy can be maintained; when the terms of the concession are made publicly known, other competitors are likely to follow, and any advantage to the initiator is lost in the process. See generally F. Scherer, Industrial Market Structure and Economic Performance 208-209, 449 (1970); P. Areeda, Antitrust Analysis 230-231 (2d ed.1974); Note, Meeting Competition Under the Robinson-Patman Act, 90 Harv.L.Rev. 1476, 1480-1481 (1977). See also United States v. Container Corp., 393 U.S. at 393 U. S. 337. Thus, if one seller offers a price concession for the purpose of winning over one of his competitor's customers, it is unlikely that the same seller will freely inform its competitor of the details of the concession so that it can be promptly matched and diffused. Instead, such a seller would appear to have at least as great an incentive to misrepresent the existence chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Especially in oligopolistic industries such as the gypsum board industry, the exchange of price information among competitors carries with it the added potential for the development of concerted price-fixing arrangements which lie at the core of the Sherman Act's prohibitions. The Department of Justice's 1977 Report on the Robinson-Patman Act focused on the growing use of the Act as a cover for price-fixing; former chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
We are left, therefore, on the one hand, with doubts about both the need for and the efficacy of interseller verification as a means of facilitating compliance with § 2(b), and, on the other, with recognition of the tendency for price discussions between competitors to contribute to the stability of oligopolistic prices and open the way for the growth of prohibited anticompetitive activity. To recognize even a limited "controlling circumstance" exception for interseller verification in such circumstances would be to remove from scrutiny under the Sherman Act conduct falling near its core with no assurance, and indeed with serious doubts, that competing antitrust policies would be served thereby. In Automatic Canteen Co. v. FTC, 346 U. S. 61, 346 U. S. 74 (1953), the Court suggested that as a general rule the Robinson-Patman Act should be construed so as to insure its coherence with "the broader antitrust policies that have been laid down by Congress"; that observation chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
One judge of the Court of Appeals was of the view that reversal was required not only because of infirmities in the antitrust instruction, but also because the trial judge had "encroach[ed] on [the] jury['s] authority" and had foreclosed "a possible no verdict' outcome." 550 F.2d 134 (Adams, J., concurring). Our own review of the record and the circumstances surrounding the deliberations of the jury, and in particular the ex parte communications between the judge and jury foreman, leads us to the same conclusion.
After hearing a mass of testimony for nearly five months, the jurors were sequestered when deliberations commenced. On the second and third days of deliberations, supplemental instructions were given in response to jury questions; on the fourth day, the hours of deliberations were shortened because of reported nervous tension among the jurors; on the fifth day, the judge sua sponte delivered what amounted to a modified chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
We find this sequence of events disturbing for a number of reasons. Any ex parte meeting or communication between the judge and the foreman of a deliberating jury is pregnant with possibilities for error. This record amply demonstrates that even an experienced trial judge cannot be certain to avoid all the pitfalls inherent in such an enterprise. First, it is difficult to contain, much less to anticipate, the direction the conversation will take at such a meeting. Unexpected questions or comments can generate unintended and misleading impressions of the judge's subjective personal views which have no place in his instruction to the jury -- all the more so when counsel are not present to challenge the statements. Second, chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Finally, the absence of counsel from the meeting and the unavailability of a transcript or full report of the meeting aggravate the problems of having one juror serve as a conduit for communicating instructions to the whole panel. While all counsel acquiesced to the judge's ex parte conference with the jury foreman, they did so on the express understanding that the judge merely intended -- as no doubt at the time he did -- to receive from the foreman a report on the state of affairs in the jury room and the prospects for a verdict. Certainly none of the parties waived the right to a full and accurate report of what transpired at the meeting, nor did they agree that the judge was to repeat the instructions as to his understandable reluctance to accept the jury's inability to reach a verdict. Because neither counsel received a full report from the judge, they were not aware of the scope of the conversation between the foreman and the judge, of the judge's statement that the jury should continue to deliberate in order to reach a verdict, or of the real risk that the foreman's impression was that a verdict "one way or the other" was required. Counsel were thus denied any opportunity to clear up the confusion regarding the judge's direction to the foreman, which could readily have been accomplished by requesting that the whole jury be called into the courtroom for a clarifying instruction. See Rogers v. United States, 422 U. S. 35, 422 U. S. 38 (1975); 250 U. S. 81 (1919). Thus, it is not simply the action of the judge in having the private meeting with the jury foreman, standing alone -- undesirable as that procedure is -- which constitutes the error; rather, it is the fact that the ex [email protected] discussion was inadvertently allowed to drift into what amounted to a supplemental instruction to the foreman relating to the jury's obligation to return a verdict, coupled with the fact that counsel were denied any chance to correct whatever mistaken impression the foreman might have taken from this conversation, that we find most troubling.
Respondents also challenged in the Court of Appeals the jury instructions regarding participation in the conspiracy and withdrawal therefrom; one judge on the panel concluded that these instructions were infirm. We agree with the Government chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
We cannot agree. The charge, fairly read, limited the jury's consideration to only two circumscribed and arguably impractical methods of demonstrating withdrawal from the conspiracy. [Footnote 37] Nothing that we have been able to find in the case law suggests, much less commands, that such confining blinders be placed on the jury's freedom to consider evidence regarding the continuing participation of alleged conspirators in the charged conspiracy. Affirmative acts inconsistent with the object of the conspiracy and communicated in a manner reasonably calculated to reach coconspirators have generally chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Mr. RUSSELL. I am not going to tell you what the status is in no way. In fact, I can't tell you, because I can't remember. chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
[4] You recall, though, that before -- when I had two alternate jurors, I asked all the jurors if there was anybody who was not physically able to go ahead and everybody wanted to do it. chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The COURT. I would like this jury to deliberate longer. I chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Mr. RUSSELL. I appreciate that. I didn't expect a decision, but I would like some kind of guidance. chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The complete colloquy between the foreman and the judge is reproduced as an 438 U. S.
550 F.2d 132 (Adams, J., concurring).
Respondents maintain that their verification practices not only were for the purpose of complying with the Robinson-Patman Act, but also served to protect them from fraud on the part of their customers, and thus fall squarely within the Cement exception. The Court of Appeals rejected this claim, 550 F.2d 123 n. 9, and we find no reason to upset this determination.
In Viviano Macaroni Co. v. FTC, 411 F.2d 255 (CA3 1969), the § 2(b) defense was not recognized because the seller had relied solely on the report of its customer regarding other competitive offers without undertaking any investigation to corroborate the offer or the reliability of the customer. The Court of Appeals in the instant case read Viviano as at least suggesting, if not requiring, interseller verification when the veracity of the buyer was in doubt. As we read that case, however, it simply reaffirms the teaching of Staley, and does not compel the further conclusion that only interseller verification will satisfy the good faith requirement, even in the particular circumstances identified by the Court of Appeals. See 550 F.2d 135 (Weis, J., dissenting).
550 F.2d 128-129, n. 13 (emphasis omitted).
I join the judgment and Parts I, II, and V of the Court's opinion. [Footnote 2/1] I also join so much of Part III as holds that a chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Ante at 438 U. S. 454, quoting Continental Baking Co., 63 F.T.C. 2071, 2163 (1963). A seller who has attempted to verify his buyer's chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
App. 1720-1721 (emphasis added). Read in conjunction with the above, the portions of the instructions quoted by the Court, ante at 438 U. S. 430, are not reversible error. The Jury was instructed that it must find a purpose "to raise, fix, maintain, and stabilize list prices," and that this purpose could be presumed from the effect of respondents' agreement. Respondents' proposed instruction * does not chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
For similar reasons, I do not believe that it is necessary in this case to address the interrelationship of the Robinson-Patman Act's "meeting competition" defense and the Sherman Act, and I cheerfully refrain from that task. The jury was clearly instructed that, if price information was exchanged "in a good faith effort to comply with the Robinson-Patman Act," chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
If I were fashioning a new test of criminal liability, I would require proof of a specific purpose to violate the law, rather than mere knowledge that the defendants' agreement has had chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Finally, I am afraid that the new civil-criminal dichotomy may work mischief in the civil enforcement of the prohibition against tampering with prices in a free market. Conclusive presumptions play a central role in the enforcement, both civil and criminal, of the Sherman Act. Thus, an agreement to charge the same price, [Footnote 3/3] or to adopt a common purchasing policy that determines the market price, [Footnote 3/4] is unreasonable, and therefore unlawful, without any proof of the purpose or the actual effect of the agreement. The law presumes that those who entered the price-fixing agreement knew that forbidden effects would follow, and it also presumes, conclusively, that those effects will follow. In a criminal prosecution for price fixing in violation of the Sherman Act, it is, therefore, irrelevant whether the prices fixed were reasonable, or whether the defendant's intentions were good. [Footnote 3/5] See United States v. chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
As applied to an agreement among major producers to exchange current price information, the rule of reason requires an element in addition to proof of the agreement itself -- either an actual market effect or an express purpose to affect market price -- but, once that element is shown, any additional showing of intent is unnecessary. See United States v. Container Corp., 393 U. S. 333. The rule is premised on the assumption that, if the practice of exchanging current price information is sufficiently prevalent to affect the market price, then there is chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Report, supra, 438 U. S. 1, at 349.