Opinion ID: 287861
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Competitors' standing to challenge unlawful competition with a statutory aid to standing

Text: 75
76 Since the decision in F.C.C. v. Sanders Bros. Radio Station, 309 U.S. 470, 60 S.Ct. 693, 84 L.Ed. 869 (1940), competitors have been granted standing to challenge administrative action under statutory aggrieved party provisions despite the fact that the statute does not require that their competitive interests be given weight by the agency. Competitors need not even be members of the industry subject to a specific regulatory statute to sue under it, so long as they can show aggrievement by administrative action pursuant to the statute. See Clarksburg Publishing Co. v. F.C.C., 96 U.S.App. D.C. 211, 225 F.2d 511 (1955); Philco Corp. v. F.C.C., 103 U.S.App.D.C. 278, 257 F.2d 656 (1958), cert. denied, 358 U.S. 946, 79 S.Ct. 350, 3 L.Ed.2d 352 (1959). Competitors whose interests and injuries are not legally protected or even immediately relevant to a regulatory jurisdiction are given standing as private attorneys general to represent the public interest in the proper administration of a regulatory scheme. Scripps-Howard Radio, Inc. v. F.C.C., 316 U.S. 4, 14, 62 S.Ct. 875, 86 L.Ed. 1229 (1942); Associated Industries v. Ickes, 134 F.2d 694 (2d Cir.) vacated as moot, 320 U.S. 707, 64 S.Ct. 74, 88 L.Ed. 414 (1943). 77
78 Long before Sanders, the Supreme Court had held that competitors have standing to challenge unlawful competition when they can show that a statute was intended to afford some protection to their economic interests. Chicago Junction Case, 264 U.S. 258, 44 S.Ct. 317, 68 L.Ed. 667 (1924). The Chicago Junction theory is the only logical support for cases holding that a license, grant, or other property interest makes some competitors more worthy plaintiffs than others. The significance of a license for standing is not its conventional status as a property right but the fact that licensing may indicate a legislative intent to limit competition in a market by regulating entry. Licensees may be intended beneficiaries entitled to rely on a regulatory scheme, with standing to enforce it. See Frost v. Corporation Comm'n, 278 U.S. 515, 49 S.Ct. 235, 73 L.Ed. 483 (1929) (Dissenting opinions of Justices Brandeis and Stone). 79 In Chicago v. Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Ry., 357 U.S. 77, 78 S.Ct. 1063, 2 L.Ed.2d 1174 (1958), the Supreme Court granted standing to a motor carrier to challenge the operation of a new carrier which had not obtained a permit required by statute on the ground that the first carrier was adversely affected and contended that the competition was prohibited by a valid city ordinance. 357 U.S. at 83, 78 S.Ct. 1063. The holding on standing does not even refer to the fact that the plaintiff carrier had a license; the point was that one party was lawfully in business and one allegedly was not. In such cases, the limitation on the number of entrants in a market is not really intended to benefit a licensee, but to assure to the public an adequate level of services from economically viable enterprises. The licensee-plaintiff is vindicating a public interest. His private interest is his reliance on the rules protecting the public. 80 Since the enactment of aggrieved party provisions giving competitors standing in most regulated industries, the intended beneficiary theory has conferred standing in exceptional cases where there is no express statutory aid to standing, notably in an action against the TVA and in the spate of suits against the Comptroller. In Hardin v. Kentucky Utilities, 390 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 651, 19 L.Ed.2d 787 (1968), the Supreme Court granted standing to a private utility to adjudicate a dispute over statutory area limitations on the expansion of TVA, a comparatively clear case of market allocation by the legislature. 81 Competitors in regulated industries have been granted standing as intended beneficiaries of a regulatory scheme where the statute (1) requires equal treatment of competitors (Chicago Junction), (2) regulates the number of entrants into a market (Chicago v. Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe), and (3) allocates markets among competitors (Hardin). In each case the legislature has concluded that the public interest in an adequate level of efficient services is furthered by some restriction on competition. When private parties sue to enforce those restrictions, they are necessarily asserting a distinct public interest more important than their own. 82