Advertising by manufacturers in an independently published periodical

No. 314. Advertising by manufacturers in an independently published periodical.

The Federal Trade Commission was asked to express an opinion with respect to the legality of payment by manufacturers for the purchase of advertising space in a periodical published by a firm which has no connection whatever with any retail customer of such manufacturers and which will supply or otherwise make the periodical available without cost to all retailers. The advisory opinion noted that payments by a manufacturer for the purchase of advertising space in a periodical published by a firm which is not owned or controlled by, or in any way directly or indirectly affiliated with, any customer of that manufacturer, or group or class of such customers, do not violate sections 2(d) or (e) of the amended Clayton Act where no discriminatory benefit is conferred by such payments on a particular customer, or class or group of customers, over competitors. The periodical will be given nationwide distribution and will be supplied and otherwise made available without cost to all industry retailers; the periodical is not designed to be usable only by particular retailers, or classes or groups of retailers; every effort will be made to distribute the periodical as broadly as possible among industry retailers; and distribution will not be limited to any particular retailer, or group or class of industry retailers.

The Commission advised that if the periodical is made available, in a practicable business sense, to all competing customers of a participating manufacturer, then no objection would be raised to payments by that manufacturer for advertising space therein. Further, that appropriate measures should be taken by the publisher to advise participating manufacturers that the periodical will serve to supplement, not supplant, their usual methods of notifying retail customers regarding the availability of their ~ *In conformity with policy of the Commission, advisory opinions are confidential and are not available to the public, only digests of advisory opinions are of public record. Digests of advisory opinions are published in the Federal Register.

ADVISORY OPINION DIGESTS 1107 sales programs and that advertising the details of such program in the periodical will not relieve them from this statutory obligation. (File No. 698 7064, released Jan. 17, 1969.)