Court Opinion

ID: 9426187
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:17:03.576626+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:22:59.459644
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice White,
with whom Mr. Justice Douglas, Mr. Justice Brennan, and Mr. Justice Marshall join, dissenting.
The majority repeats the principle so often applied by this Court that “[ijmplied antitrust immunity is not favored, and can be justified only by a convincing showing of clear repugnancy between the antitrust laws and the regulatory system.” Ante, at 719-720. That fundamental rule, though invoked again and again in our decisions, retained its vitality because in the many instances of its evocation it was given life and meaning by a close analysis of the legislation and facts involved in the particular case, an analysis inspired by the “felt indispensable role of antitrust policy in the maintenance of a free economy . . . .” United States v. Philadelphia National Bank, 374 U. S. 321, 348 (1963). Absent that inspiration the principle becomes an archaism at best, and no longer reflects the tense interplay of differing and at times conflicting public policies.
Although I do not disagree with much of the Court’s opinion in its construction of §§22 (d) and (f) of the *736Investment Company Act, 54 Stat. 824, as amended, 15 U. S. C. §§ 80a-22 (d) and (f), its ultimate holding, which in contrast to the earlier portions of its opinion is devoid of detailed discussion of the applicable law, I find unacceptable. Under that holding, in light of the context of this case, implied antitrust immunity becomes the rule where a regulatory agency has authority to approve business conduct whether or not the agency is directed to consider antitrust factors in making its regulatory decisions and whether or not there is other evidence that Congress intended to displace judicial with administrative antitrust enforcement.
I
If Congress itself expressly permits or directs particular private conduct that would otherwise violate the antitrust laws, it can be safely assumed that Congress has made the necessary policy choices and preferred to permit rather than to prevent the acts in question. There is no dispute in this case, for example, that compliance with § 22 (d)’s requirement that open-end funds and dealers sell at the public offering price is not subject to attack under the antitrust laws.
It also happens that in subjecting areas of commercial activity to regulation, Congress frequently authorizes a regulatory agency to approve certain kinds of transactions if they conform to the appropriate regulatory standard such as the “public interest” or the “public convenience and necessity” and correspondingly provides that, when approved, those transactions will be immune from attack under the antitrust laws. Section 414 of the Federal Aviation Act of 1958, 72 Stat. 770, 49 U. S. C. § 1384, for example, provides that any person affected by an order issued under §§ 408, 409, or 412 of that Act, 49 U. S. C. §§ 1378, 1379, 1382, is “relieved from the *737operations of the ‘antitrust laws,’ ” including the Sherman Act, “insofar as may be necessary to enable such person to do anything authorized, approved, or required by such order.” Hughes Tool Co. v. Trans World Airlines, 409 U. S. 363 (1973), thus involved acts and transactions expressly immunized from antitrust scrutiny. Section 5 (11) of the Interstate Commerce Act, 24 Stat. 380, as amended, 49 U. S. C. §5(11), similarly provides that carriers and their employees participating in a transaction approved or authorized under § 5 “shall be and they are relieved from the operation of the antitrust laws . . . .” Also, the Clayton Act itself provides that § 7’s prohibitions will not apply to transactions duly consummated pursuant to authority given by certain named agencies under any statutory provisions vesting power in those agencies. 38 Stat. 731, as amended, 15 U. S. C. § 18.
The courts have, of course, recognized express exemptions such as these; but the invariable rule has been “that exemptions from antitrust laws are strictly construed,” FMC v. Seatrain Lines, Inc., 411 U. S. 726, 733 (1973), and that exemption will not be implied beyond that given by the letter of the law. In Seatrain the Maritime Commission was authorized by statute to approve and immunize from antitrust challenge seven categories of agreements between shipping companies, including agreements “controlling, regulating, preventing, or destroying competition.” The Court, construing narrowly the category arguably embracing the merger agreement under consideration, held that merger agreements between shipping companies were not subject to approval by the Commission and consequently were not entitled to exemption under the antitrust laws.
Absent express immunization or its equivalent, private business arrangements are not exempt from the antitrust *738laws merely because Congress has empowered an agency to authorize the very conduct which is later challenged in court under the antitrust laws. Where the regulatory standard is the “public interest,” or something similar, there is no reason whatsoever to conclude that Congress intended the strong policy of the antitrust laws to be displaced or to be ignored in determining the public interest and in approving or disapproving the questioned conduct. This has been the consistent position of this Court. In United States v. Radio Corp. of America, 358 U. S. 334 (1959), the approval of the Federal Communications Commission of an exchange of television stations was sought as required by statute, The Commission approved the exchange, finding, in accordance with the statutory standard, that the public interest, convenience, and necessity would be served. The United States brought an antitrust action to require divestiture. It was urged in defense that the Commission had been empowered to consider and adjudicate antitrust issues and that its approval immunized the transaction. The Court rejected the defense, Mr. Justice Harlan concurring in the judgment and summarizing the Court’s holding as follows:
“[A] Commission determination of ‘public interest, convenience, and necessity’ cannot either constitute a binding adjudication upon any antitrust issues that may be involved in the Commission’s proceeding or serve to exempt a licensee pro tanto from the antitrust laws, and . . . these considerations alone are dispositive of this appeal.” Id., at 353.
In California v. FPC, 369 U. S. 482 (1962), the question was whether the authority in the Federal Power Commission to approve mergers in the public interest foreclosed antitrust challenge to an approved *739merger. The Court held that agency approval did not confer immunity from § 7 of the Clayton Act, even though the agency had taken the competitive factors into account in passing upon the application. A year later, in United States v. Philadelphia Nat. Bank, supra, the Court rejected the contention that “the Bank Merger Act, by directing the banking agencies to consider competitive factors before approving mergers . . . immunizes approved mergers from challenge under the federal antitrust laws.” 374 U. S., at 350 (footnote omitted). More recently, we applied this principle in Otter Tail Power Co. v. United States, 410 U. S. 366 (1973). There the Court held that the authority of the Federal Power Commission to order interconnections between power systems of two companies did not exempt company refusal to interconnect from antitrust attack.
Under these and other cases it could not be clearer that “[a]ctivities which come under the jurisdiction of a regulatory agency nevertheless may be subject to scrutiny under the antitrust laws,” id., at 372, and that agency approval of particular transactions does not itself confer antitrust immunity.
The foregoing were the governing principles both before and after Silver v. New York Stock Exchange, 373 U. S. 341 (1963). There, stock exchange members were directed to discontinue private wire service to two nonmember broker-dealers, who were given no notice or opportunity to be heard on the discontinuance. The latter brought suit under §§ 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act, but the Court of Appeals held that the stock exchanges had been exempted from the antitrust laws by the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. This Court reversed. The Act contained no express immunity, and immunity would be implied “only if necessary to make the Securities Exchange Act work, and even then only to the minimum extent nec*740essary.” 373 U. S., at 357. Conceding that there would be instances of permissible self-regulation which otherwise would violate the antitrust laws, the Court concluded that nothing in the Act required that the deprivations there imposed be immune from the antitrust laws. In arriving at this conclusion, it was noted that the Securities and Exchange Commission had no authority to review specific instances of enforcement of the exchange rules involved and that it was therefore unnecessary to consider any problem of conflict or coextensiveness with the agency’s regulatory power. The Court observed, however, that if there had been jurisdiction in the Commission, with judicial review following, “a different case would arise concerning exemption from the operation of laws designed to prevent anticompetitive activity . . . .” Id., at 358 n. 12.
Such a different case, we said, was before us in Ricci v. Chicago Mercantile Exchange, 409 U. S. 289, 302 (1973). That case arose in the context of the Commodity Exchange Act. We held that a district court entertaining a private antitrust action should stay its hand while the Commodity Exchange Commission exercised whatever jurisdiction it might have to adjudicate specific claims of violation of exchange rules; but that adjudication, we said, was not a substitute for antitrust enforcement, and the fact that the Commission had jurisdiction to approve or disapprove the challenged conduct and might hold the conduct to be consistent with exchange rules would not, in itself, answer the immunity question. Id., at 302-303, n. 13.
On occasion, however, Congress has authorized an agency to adjudicate the legality of specifically defined transactions or commercial behavior in accordance with a competitive standard inconsistent with the controlling criteria under the antitrust laws. In these circumstances, the *741Court has concluded that Congress intended to replace normal antitrust enforcement with the administrative regime provided by the statute, subject to judicial review. Pan American World Airways, Inc. v. United States, 371 U. S. 296 (1963), involved certain business conduct within the jurisdiction of the Civil Aeronautics Board. Under the Federal Aviation Act, various transactions by air carriers, if approved by the Board, were expressly immunized from antitrust attack. Also, the Board was given explicit authority under § 411 of that Act, 49 U. S. C. § 1381, to investigate and bring to a halt all “unfair . . . practices” and “unfair methods of competition,” the power under this section to be administered in the light of the “competitive regime” clearly delineated elsewhere in the Act. See 371 U. S., at 308-309. The Court concluded that Congress, having directed itself to the matter of competition in the airlines industry and having provided a competitive standard to be administered by an agency, had intended to displace the usual enforcement of the antitrust laws through the courts, at least insofar as Government injunction suits were concerned. United States v. Philadelphia National Bank, supra, made it plain that Pan American had not disturbed the usual rule that, without more, agency power to approve, and agency approval itself, do not confer antitrust immunity. 374 U. S., at 351-352.
Gordon v. N. Y. Stock Exchange, Inc., ante, p. 659, decided today, is another instance where Congress has provided an administrative substitute for antitrust enforcement. Section 19 (b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, 48 Stat. 898, as amended, 15 U. S. C. §78s(b), contemplated the fixing by the exchange, and approval or prescription by the Securities and Exchange Commission, of “reasonable rates of commission” to be charged by exchange members. Price fixing *742by competitors, however, is wholly at odds with the Sherman Act; under that statute prices fixed by agreement are inherently unreasonable, whatever the level at which they are set. This was the law long prior to the Securities Exchange Act:
“The aim and result of every price-fixing agreement, if effective, is the elimination of one form of competition. The power to fix prices, whether reasonably exercised or not, involves power to control the market and to fix arbitrary and unreasonable prices. The reasonable price fixed today may through economic and business changes become the unreasonable price of tomorrow. Once established, it may be maintained unchanged because of the absence of competition secured by the agreement for a price reasonable when fixed. Agreements which create such potential power may well be held to be in themselves unreasonable or unlawful restraints, without the necessity of minute inquiry whether a particular price is reasonable or unreasonable as fixed and without placing on the government in enforcing the Sherman Law the burden of ascertaining from day to day whether it has become unreasonable through the mere variation of economic conditions.” United States v. Trenton Potteries Co., 273 U. S. 392, 397-398 (1927).
Thus Congress could not have anticipated that the antitrust laws would apply to stock exchange price fixing approved by the Commission. In this respect, there is a “plain repugnancy between the antitrust and regulatory provisions,” United States v. Philadelphia National Bank, supra, at 351 (footnote omitted).
The rule of law that should be applied in this case, therefore, as it comes to us from these precedents, is that, absent an express antitrust immunization conferred *743by Congress in a statute, such an immunity can be implied only if Congress has clearly supplanted the antitrust laws and their model of competition with a differing competitive regime, defined by particularized competitive standards and enforced by an administrative agency, and has thereby purged an otherwise obvious antitrust violation of its illegality. When viewed in the light of this rule of law, the argument for implied immunity in this case becomes demonstrably untenable.
II
Section 22 (f) of the Investment Company Act provides that “[n]o registered open-end company shall restrict the transferability or negotiability of any security of which it is the issuer except in conformity with the statements with respect thereto contained in its registration statement nor in contravention of such rules and regulations as the Commission may prescribe in the interests of the holders of all of the outstanding securities of such investment company.” The majority concludes from these words and their sparse legislative history that the “funds and the SEC” have the authority to impose “SEC-approved restrictions on transferability and negotiability,” ante, at 724, 725, including the restrictions involved here effecting resale price maintenance and concerted refusals to deal, all aimed at stifling competition that might come from the secondary market. The majority concludes that “[t]here can be no reconciliation of [SEC] authority ... to permit these and similar restrictive agreements” with their illegality under the Sherman Act and that therefore “the antitrust laws must give way if the regulatory scheme established by the Investment Company Act is to work.” Ante, at 729, 730.
For several reasons, the majority’s conclusions are infirm under the controlling authorities. It is plain *744that the Act itself contains no express exemptions from the antitrust laws. It is equally plain that the Act does not expressly permit the specific restrictions at issue here in the way that it deals with the public offering price under § 22 (d). It would be incredible even to suggest that Congress intended to give participants in the mutual-fund industry, individually or collectively, carte blanche authority to impose whatever restrictions were thought desirable and without regard to the policies of the antitrust laws. The majority does not contend otherwise and rests its case on the power which it finds in the Commission to approve, or to fail to disapprove, the practices challenged here and to immunize them from antitrust scrutiny.
It is immediately obvious that the majority has failed to heed the teaching of our cases in several respects. It ignores the rule that “exemptions from antitrust laws are strictly construed” and that implied exemptions are “ 'strongly disfavored.’ ” FMC v. Seatrain Lines, Inc., 411 U. S., at 733. Lurking in the prohibition of § 22 (f) against any restrictions on “transferability or negotiability” except those stated in the registration statement, the Court discovers the affirmative power to impose resale price maintenance restrictions, as well as the authority to engage in concerted refusals to deal and similar practices wholly at odds with the antitrust laws. Never before has the Court labored to find hidden immunities from the antitrust laws; and the necessity for the effort is itself at odds with our precedents.
The Court’s holding that Commission approval automatically brings with it antitrust immunity is also contrary to those cases which have consistently refused to equate agency power to approve conduct with an exemption under the antitrust laws. Those cases, as demonstrated above, uniformly held that actual agency *745approval of the very transaction which the statute empowers the agency to approve is not in itself sufficient to exempt the transaction from liability under the Sherman Act, absent express exemption, or its equivalent, under the regulatory statute itself. This is true even where the agency is required to take antitrust considerations into account in approving the transaction or agreement and, a fortiori, where there is no evidence that such factors played any part in agency approval.
Here, the Court finds authority in open-end funds, subject to Commission approval, to impose restrictions on “negotiability and transferability”; construes those words generously to include price fixing and concerted boycotts; and then concludes that Commission approval — rather, its failure to disapprove — automatically and without more confers antitrust immunity on the selling practices followed by the particular open-end funds in this case. This result disregards the fact that there is no express provision for immunity in the statute, no direction to the Commission to consider competitive factors, no statutory standard provided for the Commission to follow with respect to competition in the investment company business, no indication that the Commission has considered the competitive impact of the restrictions at issue here, and no other basis for concluding that Congress intended the unilateral business judgment of an investment company, followed by Commission approval, to substitute for and supplant the antitrust laws.
The position of the Securities and Exchange Commission, as described and embraced by the Court, is that “its authority will be compromised” if industry practices which the Commission has the power to approve are subject to scrutiny under the antitrust laws. See ante, at 729. But the Commission has made no effort to analyze and *746explain the need for these seriously anticompetitive re-restrictions in the mutual-fund industry. It has never affirmatively and formally approved the specific practices involved in this case, by rule or adjudication. Until recently, it has seemingly left investors and the public to the tender mercies of the industry itself. In fashioning antitrust immunity for these practices, the majority acts in complete disregard of the basic approach mandated by our cases, including the principles approved by the unanimous Court in FMC v. Seatrain Lines, Inc., supra:
“The Commission vigorously argues that such agreements can be interpreted as falling within the third category — which concerns agreements ‘controlling, regulating, preventing, or destroying competition/ Without more, we might be inclined to agree that many merger agreements probably fit within this category. But a broad reading of the third category would conflict with our frequently expressed view that exemptions from antitrust laws are strictly construed, see, e. g., United States v. McKesson & Robbins, Inc., 351 U. S. 305, 316 (1956), and that ‘[rjepeals of the antitrust laws by implication from a regulatory statute are strongly disfavored, and have only been found in cases of plain repugnancy between the antitrust and regulatory provisions/ United States v. Philadelphia National Bank, 374 U. S. 321, 350-351 (1963) (footnotes omitted). As we observed only recently: ‘When . . . relationships are governed in the first instance by business judgment and not regulatory coercion, courts must be hesitant to conclude that Congress intended to override the fundamental national policies embodied in the antitrust laws/ Otter Tail Power Co. v. United States, 410 U. S. 366, 374 (1973). See also Silver v. New York Stock Exchange, 373 U. S. *747341 (1963); Pan American World Airways, Inc. v. United States, 371 U. S. 296 (1963); California v. FPC, 369 U. S. 482 (1962); United States v. Borden Co., 308 U. S. 188 (1939). This principle has led us to construe the Shipping Act as conferring only a ‘limited antitrust exemption’ in light of the fact that ‘antitrust laws represent a fundamental national economic policy.’ Carnation Co. v. Pacific Westbound Conference, 383 U. S., at 219, 218.” 411 U. S., at 732-733 (footnotes omitted).
Ill
Exempting the NASD from antitrust scrutiny based on the existence of Commission power to approve or disapprove NASD rules is likewise unacceptable under our cases for very similar reasons. The majority relies on Hughes Tool Co. v. Trans World Airlines, 409 U. S. 363 (1973), and Pan American World Airways v. United States, 371 U. S. 296 (1963). But in Hughes exemption for the transactions there involved was based on the express immunities conferred by § 414 of the Federal Aviation Act; and in Pan American immunity followed from the Board’s authority to adjudicate unfair competitive practices in accordance with the distinctive competitive standard Congress itself supplied in the regulatory statute. Nothing comparable is to be found in the relevant provisions of the statutes involved here.
It is especially interesting to find the Court on the one hand concluding that the selling practices under scrutiny here are essential to the working of the statutory scheme but on the other hand recognizing that the Commission itself has requested that the NASD rules be amended to prohibit agreements between underwriters and broker-dealers that preclude broker-dealers, acting as agents, from matching orders to buy and sell fund *748shares in a secondary market at competitively determined prices and commission rates. Ante, at 718-719, n. 31.
The majority’s opinion, as a whole, seems to me to reject the basic position found in our cases that “antitrust laws represent a fundamental national economic policy . . . .” Carnation Co. v. Pacific Conference, 383 U. S. 213, 218 (1966). I cannot follow that course and accordingly dissent.