Common sales agency
69 F.T.C. 1224 · date not parsed · Digest No. 46
source volume section (69 F.T.C. 1224)
Text is machine-OCR of the printed volume and may contain errors. Advisory opinions are the Commission's views on proposed conduct, not binding orders.
No. 46. Common sales agency.
The Federal Trade Commission has advised a manufacturers agent that its proposed plan to be the sales agent for a number of producers of the same product inv01ves grave risk of ilegality because one of its stated objectives is marketing stabiJization. The mere use of a common sales agency will not, in and of itself, result in a violation of law " the FTC's advisory opinion stated. However, it continued, in view of the requesting party statement that one of the plan s purposes is to stabi1ize the market it is reasonable to conclude that the use of a common marketing agency by a number of different producers of the same product would inevitably lead to a violation of the Federal Trade Commission Act as well as the Sherman Act. This is especially true when the common agent wou1d be quoting a common price for all the producers he represents. The Commission pointed out it is common experience that any arrangement aimed at stabi1izing the market, "even if not initially so designed, has within it the seeds of price fixing, allocation of markets, or restriction of production, all of which are classic antitrust violations. " (File No. 633 7050 , released :v1ay 1966.