Opinion ID: 152280
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Predatory practice claim

Text: The Dealer Act makes it unlawful for a manufacturer [t]o engage in any predatory practice against a dealer. R.I. Gen. Laws § 31-5.1-4(c)(26). The Dealer Act does not define predatory and there is no case law (Rhode Island or otherwise) defining the term for purposes of the Dealer Act. In such a case, we may look to the term's ordinary meaning. Field v. Mans, 157 F.3d 35 (1st Cir.1998); San Jose Christian Coll. v. City of Morgan Hill, 360 F.3d 1024, 1034 (9th Cir.2004). The ordinary meaning of predatory, at least in the business context, is inclined or intended to injure or exploit others for personal gain or profit. Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary 915 (10th ed. 1993). This definition is consistent with a classic example of a predatory business practice, predatory pricing. See Cargill, Inc. v. Monfort of Colo., Inc., 479 U.S. 104, 110-11, 107 S.Ct. 484, 93 L.Ed.2d 427 (1986) (Predatory pricing may be defined as pricing below an appropriate measure of cost for the purpose of eliminating competitors in the short run and reducing competition in the long run.). No reasonable jury could conclude that Honda's decision to temporarily prohibit the Internet sale of Honda VSCs was a predatory practice. Nothing in the record suggests that Honda imposed the temporary prohibition on the Internet sale of Honda VSCs to exploit Internet dealers like Saccucci for its own benefit. To the contrary, the evidence indicates that Honda enacted the policy to protect brand loyalty and image, something in the best interest of Honda's dealers. See Scuncio Motors, Inc. v. Subaru of New Eng., Inc., 555 F.Supp. 1121, 1138 n. 27 (D.R.I.1982) (concluding that there was little need to address [the dealer's] claims of predatory conduct in violation of Rhode Island's Dealer Act where the manufacturer acted in good faith and with good cause). Again, we find Saccucci's arguments to the contrary to be unavailing. It begins by citing Aspen Skiing Co. v. Aspen Highlands Skiing Corp., 472 U.S. 585, 605, 105 S.Ct. 2847, 86 L.Ed.2d 467 (1985) for the principle that commercial predation occurs where there is an exclusion of the competitor from the marketplace on some basis other than efficiency. But that case involved a business that was allegedly trying to exclude a competing business from the marketplace. Id. Here, Honda did not act as a competitor to Saccucci, nor did it exclude Saccucci from the Honda VSC marketplace. Next, Saccucci asserts that a finding that Honda's conduct here is not predatory ignores serious antitrust issues raised by ... geographical trade restraints. This argument is hardly developed and, because no antitrust claims have been made here, we need not consider it.