Americana Corporation

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IN THE MATTER OF AMERICANA CORPORATION ET AL.

MODIFIED CEASE AND DESIST ORDER Docket 5085. Or(ler Dec. 8, 1949 :Modified ·order in proceeding in question, in which original order issued on July 14, 1948, 45 F. T. C. 32, requiring respondent, its officers, etc., in connection with the offering, etc., in commerce, of respondent's encyclopedia designated "Americana" or "Encyclopedia Americana" and material supplementary thereto, or any other publication, to cease and desist from representing that its said publication is the best known, etc., published in the United States, and contains more articles than any other encyclopedia, and from making various other misrepresentations in connection with the offer of said product, as below in detail set out.

Before Mr. Randolph Preston, trial examiner. Mr. John llf. Russell for the Commission.

Mr. J. Raymond Tiffany, of Hoboken, N. J., and Mr. Benjatmin W erne, of New York City, for respondents.

MODIFIED ORDER TO CEASE AND DESIST ··This proceeding having been heard by the Federal Trade Commission upon the complaint of the Commission, the respondent's answers thereto, and a stipulation of facts entered into by and between counsel for the respondents and counsel in support of the complaint (the recommended decisions of the trial examiner, briefs, and oral argument having been waived); and the Commission, having made its findings as to the facts and its· conclusion that the respondents had violated the provisions of the Federal Trade Commission Act, on July 14, 1948, issued, and on July 28, 1948, served upon each of the respondents its order to cease and desist. Thereafter, this matter came on for hearing before the Commission upon a petition, filed on behalf of the respondent, Americana Corporation, requesting certain modifications in the aforesaid order to cease and desist, and the answer to such petition filed by counsel in support of the complaint; and the Commission, having considered said petition and answer and the record herein, and being of the opinion that its order to cease and desist issued July 14, 1948, should be modified in certain respects:

1t is ordered, That the respondent, Americana Corporation, a Delaware corporation, and its officers, agents, representatives and employees, directly or through any corporate or other device, in con- .254 FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION DECISIONS . Order 46 F. T. C. nection with the offering for sale, sale or distribution of its encyclo- . pedia. designated "AIJ1~ricana" or "Encylopedia Americana" and material supplementary thereto, or any other p~1blication, in comlnerce, as "commerce" is defined in the Federal Trade Commission Act, do forthwith cease and desist from:

( 1) Representing, directly or by implication, that said publication is the best known or most authoritative encyclopedia published in the United States, or that it is America's supreme authority; (2) Representing, directly or by implication, that said publication contains more articles than any other encyclopedia, or that it pt'esents more information than ony other set of books; ; (3) Representing, directly or by implication, that said publication is the choice of all goverment departments, educational institutions, boards of education or public libraries as the official reference work; ( 4) ·Representing, directly or by implication, that said publication is available only to selected individuals under. special condition·ns when such is not the fact;

( 5) Representing, directly or by inference, that individuals' .employed by the respondent to sell its publication are anything other than salesmen soliciting prospects to purchase said publication at prices regularly established by the respondent;

( 6) Representing as the customary or usual price of said p~blica­ tion any price or value which is in fact in excess of the price at wl1ichit is customarily offered for sale and sold in the usual course of business; (7) Representing that any issue ofsaid publication constitutes a new edition thereof, unless and until the contents of former editions have been revised and new encyclopedic material has been added to the extent necessary to reflect the then current information on the various subjects covered by such publication.

It is furtlwr ordered, For reasons appearing in the Commission's . findings as to the facts, that the complaint herein be, and it hereby is, dismissed as to the individual respondents, Fred P. Murphy, Joseph C. Graham, Jr., and Thomas J. Kirk. ·· It is further ordered, That the respondent, Americana Corporation, shall within sixty (60) days after service upon it of this order, file with the Commission a report in writing setting forth in detail the manner and forinin which it has complied with this order. Commjssioner l\fason. not participating.

V. M. PRODUCTS 255 Complaint