Sinclair Refining Co. v. Federal Trade Commission

276 F. 686, 1921 U.S. App. LEXIS 2141
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedSeptember 8, 1921
DocketNo. 2838
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 276 F. 686 (Sinclair Refining Co. v. Federal Trade Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sinclair Refining Co. v. Federal Trade Commission, 276 F. 686, 1921 U.S. App. LEXIS 2141 (7th Cir. 1921).

Opinion

PAGE, Circuit Judge.

This is an original petition against Federal Trade Commission, hereafter called respondent, to review an order made in a proceeding wherein it had filed its complaint against Sinclair Refining Company, hereinafter called petitioner, the substance o.f which complaint was that petitioner, being engaged in the business of purchasing and selling oil and gasoline and the leasing and loaning of oil pumps, storage tanks, or containers and their equipment, leased, for a nominal consideration, said oil pumps, storage tanks, or con-[687]*687tamers and their equipment to persons who purchased oil from petitioner, with the understanding that the same, should not be used by the lessees of the pumps and other equipment to hold or pump the oil of any competitor. It was also charged that the leases were made on consideration that lessees should not purchase or deal in the products of a competitor.

In answer to that complaint, petitioner set out the contract, which was found by the Federal Trade Commission to be the uniform contract by which such equipment was leased, the portions of which material here are:

“1. The above-described equipment shall be used by party of the second part [purchaser of gasoline! for the sole purpose of storing and handling the gasoline supplied by party of the first part. * * *
“6. This agreement shall terminate forthwith upon the sale or other disposition of said premises by party of the second part, and in any event upon the expiration of •-— months from the date hereof, * * . * provided, however, that the party of the second part shall have the right and option at such time to purchase said equipment by paying therefor the sum of $ — ——.”

After the findings of fact were made, the order to cease and desist, here complained of, was entered.

The question, plainly stated, is: Does the leasing, under the terms of the contract in evidence, at a nominal charge, of containers and pumps by petitioner to purchasers of its gasoline constitute an “unfair method of competition,” as those words are used in section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act of September 26, 1914 (Comp. St. § 8836), or may the effect of such leasing be to substantially lessen competition and tend to create for the respondent a monopoly in the business of selling petroleum products in violation of section 3 of -the Clayton Act (Comp. St. § 8835b) ?

This identical matter was recently decided by the Court of Appeals in the Second Circuit in Texas Co. v. Federal Trade Commission, and Standard Oil Co. of New York v. Federal Trade Commission, 273 Fed. 478, adversely to the respondent’s contention here.

1. “Unfair methods of competition” have been discussed by this court in the opinion in Kinney-Rome Co. v. Federal Trade Commission, 275 Fed. 665, just filed.

Neither section relied upon gives the Federal Trade Commission power to regulate trade generally. The jurisdiction under section 5 exists only where there are practices that amount to a fraud in regard to some public or private right; otherwise they do not, in our opinion, as we said in the Kinney-Rome Case, supra, amount to an unfair method of competition.

In addition to the reasons upon which the decision was based in the Texas Company Case, supra, we are of opinion that petitioner had the undoubted right to furnish any and every purchaser such containers and conveniences to aid him in delivering the gasoline into the possession of the consumer as it might see fit, and at such cost as it might see fit. The right to fix prices is not given to the Federal Trade Commission. The only cases where the question of price has come into consideration have been those wherein the making of a price— [688]*688in some cases high, in others low — has been used as an element in some fraudulent scheme of oppression. The price which one may put upon that which he has to sell or lease is a matter wholly his own. United States v. Freight Ass’n, 166 U. S. 290, 320, 17 Sup. Ct. 540, 41 L. Ed. 1007; Sears, Roebuck & Co. v. Federal Trade Com., 258 Fed. 307, 312, 169 C. C. A. 323, 6 A. L. R. 358.

Competition is not an unmixed good. It is a battle for something that only one can get; one competitor must necessarily lose. The weapons in competition are various. Superior energy, more extensive advertising, better articles, better terms as to time of delivery, place of delivery, time of credit, interest or no interest, freights, methods of packing, lower prices, more attractive and more convenient packages, superior service, and many others, are and always have been considered proper weapons. Expense attending the use of any weapon, the foolishness of it, the fact that a method is uneconomical, or that the competitor cannot meet any method or scheme of competition because it will be ruinous to him to do so, have not, nor has either of them, ever been held unfair. Such things are a part of the strife inherent in competition. Some merchants sell and deliver goods at the counter and you must take them away; others deliver them at your house, or in any town, state or country — that is merely a part of the bargain. Some people deliver a hat in a bag at the store; others deliver it at your house in a fancy box that is used by many purchasers as a container. Petitioner said:

“Here is a container and a pump; you may take and use them for the storage and pumping of gasoline bought from us; if you wish to use them otherwise, you may and must buy them.”

In kind, that is nothing more than loaning a barrel, with a faucet in it. The fact that the tank and pump are much more expensive does not make the transaction different nor unfair. If that is" not true, then the law must mean that the Trade Commission is set as a watch on competitors, with the duty and the power to judge what is too fast a pace for some and to compel others to slow up; in other words, to destroy all competition except that which is easy. We are of opinion that Congress did not intend to bestow any such power, and that it did not intend to do more than to eliminate the almost infinite variety of fraudulent practices, from business-in interstate commerce.

2. We are of opinion that there was no violation of section 3 of the Clayton Act. The complaint under that section is that petitioner made leases for the container and pump and fixed the price therefor “on the condition, understanding, and agreement that the lessees thereof shall not purchase or deal in the products of a competitor or competitors, of respondent” (petitioner). There is nothing in the evidence nor in the findings of fact by the Federal Trade Commission that supports any such charge. The finding is that there was a uniform contract. There is no word there about purchasing from competitors.. The only limitation is that—

“The above-described equipment shall be used by party of the second part for the sole purpose of storing and handling the gasoline supplied by party of the first part.”

[689]*689But there are other findings, that, taken in connection with the order to cease and desist, very clearly indicate what the Commission deemed the real trouble which it desired to reach was, viz.:

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Bluebook (online)
276 F. 686, 1921 U.S. App. LEXIS 2141, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sinclair-refining-co-v-federal-trade-commission-ca7-1921.