Harlan F. Stone

“ But it does not follow that respondents may never absorb freight when their factory price plus actual freight is higher than their competitors' price, or that sellers, by so doing, may not maintain a uniform delivered price at all points of delivery, for in that event there is no discrimination in price.
Congress has left to the Commission the determination of fact in each case whether the person, charged with making discriminatory prices, acted in good faith to meet a competitor's equally low prices. ”

“ A price discrimination is measured by the difference between the high price to one purchaser and the lower price to another. Respondent's price discriminations were not dictated by the lower delivery costs or lower delivery prices of their competitors. In none of the markets in which respondents had a freight advantage over their Chicago competitors did respondents reduce their prices below those of their competitors. ”

“ By adopting the price system of their competitors, respondents have succeeded in many instances in establishing an artificially high price and have thus secured the benefit of the high price levels of a competitor whose costs of delivery are greater. ”

“ In some instances, after a price advance, respondents also made fictitious bookings on which deliveries were later made, at the option of the favored buyers; and in still other cases sales were made to favored purchasers long after the expiration of the booking period. Respondents also book glucose in tank car lots to certain purchasers who lack storage facilities for such quantities; respondents then actually make deliveries in tank wagon lots over a period of many months, during which they are selling to others upon like deliveries at higher prices. ”

“ Respondents, a parent company and its sales subsidiary, are engaged in the manufacture and sale of glucose or corn syrup in competition with others, including the Corn Products Refining Company, whose methods of marketing and pricing its products are described in our opinion in Corn Products Refining Company v. ”

“ We think the conclusion is inadmissible, in view of the clear Congressional purpose not to sanction by § 2 (b) the excuse that the person charged with a violation of the law was merely adopting a similarly unlawful practice of another. ”