Promotional assistance-PubJisher payments to a single reseller of the pubJisher s periodical

No. 12. Promotional assistance-PubJisher payments to a single reseller of the pubJisher s periodical. The Federal Trade Commission announced today that it had recently advised a publisher of a periodical that the proposed promotional assistance Plan described below would be vi01ative of Section 2 (d) of the Robinson-Patman amendment to the Clayton Act. Section 2 (d) provides in essence that it is unlawful for a supplier in interstate commerce to offer promotional assistance to his customer in reselling the supplier s product unless a proportionally equal offer also is made to the customer s competitors who sell the same product. Essentially, the proposed Plan provided for a payment of $75 weekly to the operator of a chain of newsstands. In return, the operator would (1) place the publication on sale on the newsstands, (2) submit daily sales reports to the publisher for each newsstand, (3) favorably display the publication on the stands and (4) provide stock control to avoid sell outs. The Plan was deemed violative of Section 2 (d) because it was to be offered only to the one operator of newsstands. Under the Plan, his competitors in selling the publication were not to be offered promotional assistance-proportional or otherwise. The Commission s Guides for Advertising Allowances discuss the requirements for such promotional assistance Plans in considerable detail and wi1 be of assistance to persons comtemplating their use. Copies of the Guides are available from the Secretary, Federal Trade Commission, Washington, D.C. 20580. (File 1"0. 6637020, released Jan. 5, 1966.