Lichtenstein v. Federal Trade Commission

194 F.2d 607
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedFebruary 27, 1952
Docket12666_1
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 194 F.2d 607 (Lichtenstein v. Federal Trade Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lichtenstein v. Federal Trade Commission, 194 F.2d 607 (9th Cir. 1952).

Opinion

DENMAN, Chief Judge.

Petitioner, a dealer in gambling devices used to promote sales of merchandise, seeks a review and our setting aside of two orders of the Federal Trade Commission. One of the orders provides:

“It is further ordered that said respondents and their agents, representatives and employees, directly or through any corporate or other device, in connection with the offering for sale, sale or distribution in commerce, as ‘commerce’ is defined in the Federal Trade Commission Act, of cigarette chests or boxes, or other articles of merchandise, do forthwith cease and desist from:
“1. Supplying to or placing in the hands of others punch boards, push cards, or other lottery devices, either with assortments of cigarette chests or boxes or other merchandise, or separately, which said punch boards, push cards, or other lottery devices, are to be used, or may be used, in selling or distributing such cigarette chests or boxes or other merchandise to the public.
“2. Selling or distributing cigarette chests or boxes, or other articles of merchandise, so packed or assembled that sales thereof to the public are to be made or, due to the manner in which such merchandise, is packed or assembled at the time it is sold by the respondents, may be made by means of a game of chance, gift enterprise, or lottery scheme.
“3. Selling or otherwise disposing of any merchandise by menas [means] of a game of chance, gift enterprise, or lottery scheme.”

Since the gambling devices, the punchboards, were shipped with petitioner’s merchandise to be sold to the ultimate consumer in a gambling sale, the order is clearly justified by Federal Trade Commission v. R. F. Keppel & Bro., 291 U.S. 304, 54 S.Ct. 423, 78 L.Ed. 814. This order of the Commission is affirmed.

The second order complained of reads as follows: It is ordered that respondents cease: “Selling or distributing in commerce, as ‘commerce’ is defined in the Federal Trade Commission Act, punch boards, push cards, or other lottery devices, which are to be used, or may be used, in the sale or distribution of merchandise to the public by means of a game of chance, gift enterprise, or lottery scheme.” (Emphasis supplied.)

*609 The Commission’s brief here admits concerning the place in which the gambling sales are consummated to the ultimate consumer that: “It is true that the final sale to the ultimate purchaser by means of lottery of necessity, always occurs in intrastate commerce and is an intrastate transaction. The punching of the board or pushing of the card always occurs within the borders of some state.”

The petitioner contends that since the gambling devices are not used in competitive sales in the course of their interstate transmission but only in competitive sales transactions in intrastate commerce after the interstate transmission is completed, no authority is given to the Commission to regulate such interstate transportation by Section 5(a) of the Federal Trade Commission Act providing:

“Sec. 5. (a) Unfair methods of competition in commerce, and unfair or deceptive acts or practices in commerce, are hereby declared unlawful.
“The Commission is hereby empowered and directed to prevent persons, partnerships, or corporations * * * from using unfair methods of competition in commerce and unfair or deceptive acts or practices in commerce.” 52 Stat. 111-112; 15 U.S.C.A. § 45(a).

Upon a review of the history of Section 5(a) in connection with the decisions of the court thereon, we are of the opinion that the petitioner’s use of interstate commerce to ship these devices to be used in intrastate commerce in the gambling disposition of merchandise to the ultimate consumer is one of the “unfair * * * practices in commerce” subject to the preventive control of the Commission.

Prior to its amendment in 1938 the first sentence of Section 5(a) read: “Sec. 5. That unfair methods of competition in commerce are hereby declared unlawful.” The addition of the words, “unfair or deceptive acts or practices in commerce,” was the subject of discussion in the Congress and in the report 1 of the Conference Committee on the bill containing the additional words.

Prior to the introduction of the bill for amending Section 5(a), the Supreme Court had held in the case of Federal Trade Commission v. Raladam Co., 283 U.S. 643, at page 646, 51 S.Ct. 587, at page 589, 75 L.Ed. 1324: “By the plain words of the act, the power of the Commission to take steps looking to the issue of an order to desist depends upon the existence of three distinct prerequisites: (1) That the methods complained of are unfair; (2) that they are methods of competition in commerce; and (3) that a proceeding by the Commission to prevent the use of the methods appears to be in the interest of the public. We assume the existence of the first and third of these requisites; and pass at once to the consideration of the second.”

It then proceeded to hold that the Commission had no power to issue an order to desist in that case because there was no competition in interstate commerce. In the discussions of the amendment to Section 5(a) in the Congress, there was agreement both in the House, where the bill was introduced by Congressman Lea, and in the Conference Committee that its purpose was to relieve the Federal Trade Commission of the necessity of showing injury to a competitor and to protect the ultimate consumer where there was no competition. 2 *610 In the earlier case of Federal Trade Commission v. R. F. Keppel & Bro., supra, 291 U.S. at page 310, et seq., 54 S.Ct. at page 425, the Supreme 'Court makes a similar review of the discussion in the Congress in determining the purpose of the enactment of Section 5(a) as originally drawn.

The object of the Federal Trade Commission Act is to reach not merely in their fruition but also in their incipiency trade practices deemed undesirable by the Congress. Cf. Fashion Originators’ Guild v. Federal Trade Commission, 312 U.S. 457, 466, 668, 61 S.Ct. 703, 85 L.Ed. 949, and Federal Trade Commission v. Raladam Co., 316 U.S. 149, 152, 62 S.Ct. 966, 86 L.Ed. 1336.

The recent Third Circuit case of Globe Cardboard Novelty Co. v. Federal Trade Commission, 192 F.2d 444, and the Sixth Circuit case of Charles A. Brewer & Sons v. Federal Trade Commission, 158 F.2d 74

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194 F.2d 607, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lichtenstein-v-federal-trade-commission-ca9-1952.