Tom C. Clark

“ So long as the manufacturer does enjoy some such leverage, his marketing of complementary goods through an established system of distributorships will tend to effect some exclusion of competition, whether those goods be distributed by another through a sales-commission plan, or purchased and resold by the manufacturer, or indeed manufactured and sold by him. ”

“ It is to avoid just such errors as inhere in this order that the power of judicial review was granted to the courts-errors which, serving no public purpose, impose senseless damage on the private sector of our economy. ”

“ Atlantic is a major producer, refiner and distributor of oil and its by-products. Its market is confined to portions of 17 States along the eastern seaboard. [4] Its distribution system consists of wholesale distributors who purchase gasoline and lubricants in large quantities and retail service station operators who do business either as lessees of Atlantic or as contract dealers selling its products. ”

“ Goodyear also sells its products at wholesale and retail through about 500 company-owned stores and through numerous independent dealers. These independent franchised dealers number more than 12,000, there being among them a number of Atlantic wholesale petroleum distributors and retail petroleum jobbers. Goodyear has also had a substantial number of non-franchised dealers which includes most service station customers, including the Atlantic stations involved here. ”

“ Here that lever was bolstered by actual threats and coercive practices. As our cases hold, all that is necessary in § 5 proceedings to find a violation is to discover conduct that 'runs counter to the public policy declared in the' Act. Fashion Originators' Guild of America v. Federal Trade Comm'n, 312 U.S. 457, 463, 61 S.Ct. 703, 706, 85 L.Ed. 949 (1941) . But this is of necessity, and was intended to be, a standard to which the Commission would give substance. In doing so, its use as a guideline of recognized violations of the antitrust laws was, we believe, entirely appropriate. ”

“ Since Atlantic has not sought review of paragraphs 5 and 6 of the Commission's order as to its use of overt acts of coercion on its wholesalers and retailers those portions of the order are final. We therefore do not set out in detail all of the facts which are so carefully examined in the opinion of the Court of Appeals. ”

“ There was ample evidence establishing on Goodyear's part a course of conduct lasting over 14 years aimed at utilizing oil company power structures to curtail competition in tires, batteries and accessories. ”

“ Unjustifiable Commission orders imposing such damage on corporate enterprise, and ultimately on the public, cannot be sanctioned by invocation of abstractions regarding the deference properly owed expert tribunals in devising remedial measures. ”