Opinion ID: 414319
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Payment of artificially low prices for logs

Text: 28 Finally, the evidence shows that KPC and ALP conspired to pay artificially low prices to loggers. By calculating payments to loggers on the basis of the loggers' costs rather than the value of the logs, ALP and KPC created a network of captive loggers heavily indebted to the defendants. 6 With a drop of the executioner's sword, the defendants could cut off a logger's financing, force the logger out of business, and acquire the company or its assets. 29 The defendants overstate the impact of government regulation on the logging industry. It is beyond question (as recognized by the district court) that the USFS in the 1960's began to discourage certain types of small logging operations. However, the evidence shows that many loggers, including the plaintiff, had both the resources and the experience to survive and prosper in the changing lumber industry. The fact that RBLC was the only remaining independent purchase logger in southeast Alaska in 1973 was found by the district court to be a direct result of the defendants' conspiracy in restraint of prices.