Federal Trade Commission Act

“ There is a special reason, however, why courts should not lightly modify the Commission's orders made in efforts to safeguard a competitive economy. Congress when it passed the Trade Commission Act felt that courts needed the assistance of men trained to combat monopolistic practices in the framing of judicial decrees in antitrust litigation. Congress envisioned a commission trained in this type of work by experience in carrying out the functions imposed upon it. ”

“ While it is impossible from the terms of the act itself, and in the light of the foregoing circumstances leading up to its passage, reasonably to conclude that Congress intended to vest the Commission with the general power to prevent all sorts of unfair trade practices in commerce apart from their actual or potential effect upon the trade of competitors, it is not necessary that the facts point to any particular trader or traders. ”

“ Storer and its successors are, of course, closely related to the question we face here. For a major component of appellees' complaint is the abridgement of their interest in having the Trade Commission Act's standard of illegality elaborated only in an adjudicatory context. In our view, this argument was adequately answered in Storer, at least to the extent the FTC's rule serves the "purpose of shortening and simplifying the adjudicative process and of clarifying the law in advance," [10] and thus, in Storer' s language, aids the Commission in the "orderly conduct of its business." ”

“ It would stultify congressional purpose to say that the Commission did not have the incidental power to ask the courts of appeals to exercise their authority derived from the All Writs Act. [5] Indeed, the opinions in Arrow Transportation Co. and Whitney Nat. Bank necessarily recognized the standing of administrative agencies to seek such preliminary relief to ensure effective judicial review. Both decisions referred to Board of Governors of Federal Reserve System v. Transamerica Corp., supra, where the Court of Appeals stayed a merger on application by the Federal Reserve Board. ”

“ Pursuant to section 504 (c) of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended ("Trade Act") (19 U.S.C. 2464 (c) ) , beneficiary developing countries are subject to limitations on the preferential treatment afforded under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) . Pursuant to section 504 (c) (3) of the Trade Act, the President may waive the application of section 504 (c) of the Trade Act after receiving the advice of the International Trade Commission, determining that the waiver is in the national economic interest of the United States, and publishing such determination in the Federal Register. ”

“ The FTC, in furtherance of its power to enforce § 2 of the Clayton Act, as amended by the Robinson-Patman Act of 1936, 15 U.S.C. § 13 (1970) , is also empowered "after due investigation and hearing to all interested parties, [to] fix and establish quantity limits, and revise the same as it finds necessary, as to particular commodities or classes of commodities, where it finds that available purchasers in greater quantities are so few as to render differentials on account thereof unjustly discriminatory or promotive of monopoly in any line of commerce ”

“ These reports, as well as the testimony given by members of the Commission before congressional committees, make it clear that long before the filing of this complaint the members of the Commission at that time, or at least some of them, were of the opinion that the operation of the multiple basing point system as they had studied it was the equivalent of a price fixing restraint of trade in violation of the Sherman Act. ”

“ Moreover, Marquette's position, if sustained, would to a large extent defeat the congressional purposes which prompted passage of the Trade Commission Act. Had the entire membership of the Commission disqualified in the proceedings against these e spondents, this complaint could not have been acted upon by the Commission or by any other government agency. Congress has provided for no such contingency. ”

“ It is earnestly to be hoped that Congress may be induced to content itself at this time with creating a competent trade commission. If it is not prepared expressly to exempt from the operation of the anti-trust act the common carriers subject to regulation by the Interstate Commerce Commission, may it at least refrain from making that act odious as well as ridiculous, and leave to the Supreme Court the task, on which it is so well advanced, of giving it an interpretation that is at once clear and reasonable! ”

“ III Appellees contend, however, that these cases and the general practice of agencies and courts in underwriting the broad use of rule-making are irrelevant to the FTC. They argue that the Trade Commission is somehow sui generis, that it is best characterized as a prosecuting rather than a regulatory agency, and that substantive rule-making power should be less readily implied from a general grant of rule-making authority where the agency does not stand astride an industry with pervasive license-granting, rate-setting, or clearance functions. ”

“ The Commission’s concern with repair restrictions [15] dates back more than forty years, to when the Commission’s then-Chairman testified in favor of the anti-tying provision of the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act (the “MMWA”) . [16] The anti-tying provision, Section 102 (c) of the MMWA, prohibits a warrantor of a consumer product from conditioning its warranty on the consumer’s using any article or service which is identified by brand name unless the article or service is provided for free or the warrantor obtains a waiver from the Commission. ”

“ The kind of specialized knowledge Congress wanted its agency to have was an expertness that would fit it to stop at the threshold every unfair trade practice-that kind of practice, which if left alone, 'destroys competition and establishes monopoly.' Federal Trade Commission v. ”

“ In the guise of protecting producers and purchasers from discriminatory price competition, the Court ignores legitimate market preferences and endows the Federal Trade Commission with authority to disrupt price relationships between products whose identity has been measured in the laboratory but rejected in the marketplace. ”

“ The Court relies heavily on the Report of the Attorney General's National Committee to Study the Antitrust Laws (1955) and also suggests that the Federal Trade Commission permits "legitimate functional discounts" but will not countenance subterfuges. ”

“ In all of these legislative proceedings, the position of the FTC has been steadfast: consistently, it has insisted that without new legislation it lacks authority to enjoin mergers pending completion of agency action. In March of 1957, FTC Chairman Gwynne informed the appropriate Committees of the decision in Federal Trade Comm'n v. International Paper Co., 241 F.2d 372 (C.A.2d Cir. 1956) , that the all-writs statute would not support an FTC application for preliminary relief. ”

“ Two days after President Wilson's 1914 message to Congress, the Administration's plan for a trade commission was introduced in both Houses of Congress. Sponsored by Congressman Clayton of Alabama and Senator Newlands, the bill [1] essentially provided for an investigatory commission, clothed with power to compel reports on corporations and business and financial practices and to recommend prosecution under the antitrust laws. The proposed agency lacked any independent power to order a halt to business practices involving a violation of law. ”

“ To investigate, from time to time, trade conditions in and with foreign countries where associations, combinations, or practices of manufacturers, merchants, or traders, or other conditions, may affect the foreign trade of the United States, and to report to Congress thereon, with such recommendations as it deems advisable. ”