Opinion ID: 287861
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Competitors' standing to challenge unlawful competition without a statutory aid to standing

Text: 69 Analysis of suits by competitors confirms the Supreme Court's observation that 'the various rules of standing applied by federal courts have not been developed in the abstract. Rather, they have been fashioned with specific reference to the status asserted by the party whose standing is challenged and to the type of question he wishes to have adjudicated.' Flast v. Cohen, 392 U.S. 83, 101, 88 S.Ct. 1942, 20 L.Ed.2d 947 (1968). The general rule denying standing to competitors who can claim no statutory aid to standing is derived from two types of cases in which their interest in attacking allegedly unlawful competition has not been found reasonably proportionate to the burden on governmental agencies of defending against such suits. In one class of cases, privately-owned utilities have been denied standing to challenge legislative public power programs. See, e.g., Alabama Power Co. v. Ickes, 302 U.S. 464, 58 S.Ct. 300, 82 L.Ed. 374 (1938); Tennessee Electric Power Co. v. T.V.A., 306 U.S. 118, 59 S.Ct. 366, 83 L.Ed. 543 (1933); Kansas City Power & Light v. McKay, 96 U.S.App.D.C. 273, 225 F.2d 925, cert. denied, 350 U.S. 884, 76 S.Ct. 137, 100 L.Ed. 780 (1955). These cases draw much of their vitality from considerations of separation of powers and the doctrine 'that a person may not maintain a suit to enjoin the use of Government funds, even if such use is claimed to be in violation of law.' In suits of this nature, 'the fact that the plaintiff is suffering an economic detriment from competition assisted by a loan or grant of Government funds, does not give him standing to sue.' Baker, Watts & Co. v. Saxon, 261 F.Supp. at 249. Cf. Saxon v. Georgia Assn. of Ins. Agents, 399 F.2d at 1020-1021 (concurring opinion). 70 There are similarly sound policy reasons why competitive injury does not confer standing to challenge administrative decisions affording some incidental aid to another competitor or group of competitors in an industry. Minor or speculative economic injury is not worth burdening the agencies and the courts with skirmishes among businesses over comparative advantages resulting from allegedly illegal agency action. See Pennsylvania Railroad Co. v. Dillon, 118 U.S.App.D.C. at 262, 335 F.2d at 297. 71 These, then are the considerations underlying the many opinions which deny standing with the homily that competition is our economic norm. To acknowledge that cases denying standing to competitors are governed by (1) considerations of separation of powers, and (2) a desire to limit actions against the government, rather than by rigid abstract rules, seems to me only to do justice to the subtleties of standing as an element of justiciability. In suits by competitors, the nature of the claim is plainly relevant to the status of the economic interest asserted as a basis for standing. Here the ICI does not challenge the constitutional propriety of legislation or government spending. It does not ask this court to invoke due process or substantial evidence standards to afford it a remedy for marginal injury from an illegal administrative action. It points out, instead, that national banks operate under a regime of enumerated powers and prohibitions carefully laid down by Congress, and asks us to decide whether the competition authorized by the Comptroller violates specific provisions of the banking laws, one of which carries criminal penalties for bank entry into the securities business. 12 U.S.C. 378. 72 In these circumstances, to put the ICI out of court with the incantation that competition is our economic norm is insupportable in law and fact. No case stands for the rule that authorization of novel and prohibited-- even criminal-- business activity by administrative agencies is part of the rough-and-tumble of a competitive market. And in point of fact, toe-to-toe competition between mutual funds and commercial banks has never been the norm. The Comptroller's action introduces a powerful new element into a market previously closed to commercial banks by the rulings of the Federal Reserve Board, enforcing the same prohibitions now largely committed to the supervision of the Comptroller. This case falls outside the authorities for the general rule that competitors lack standing to challenge illegal competition. 73 We are not locked into conventional concepts of unfair competition in assessing a competitor's interest for purposes of standing. Cf. Jaffe, Standing To Secure Judicial Review: Private Actions, 75 Harv.L.Rev. 255, 265-266 (1961). It would not be far-fetched to conclude that competition illegally authorized by an agency which has allegedly ignored statutory prohibitions is unfair. But while there is arguably a private interest meriting protection here, it is plain that the overriding interest in enforcement of the Glass-Steagall Act is a public one. The question is whether the ICI may assert the public interest without a statutory aid to standing. 74