ROBINSON
PATMAN
ACT

Independent Retailers, Jobbers and Wholesalers Are Owed Many $ Billions for Violations of the Federal Antitrust Law Prohibiting Price Discrimination

Carl Person, an antitrust and civil rights lawyer engaged primarily in price-discrimination litigation under the federal antitrust act known as the Robinson-Patman Act (the "RPA"), has a national practice to pursue price-discrimination litigation for independent retailers, jobbers and wholesalers (or warehouse distributors) competing against the nation's major general retailers such as Wal-Mart, Kmart and Target and major specialty retailers such as Home Depot, Barnes & Noble, AutoZone; and Bed, Bath & Beyond.

On the average, according to Person, the average independent retailer has meritorious RPA claims totaling approximately 50% to 75% of the retailers average sales during the preceding four years, amounting to $1,000,000 or more for many independent retailers, and multiple millions of dollars for the average independent wholesaler. To talk with attorney Carl Person (at no charge) about the dollar amount of your possible claim, before spending time your time learning about the RPA, give him a call, days at 212-307-4444 and, if no answer, try his cell number at 917-453-9376. The amount is usually much higher than you might estimate.

I have created a rule of thumb based on the average daily loss you can prove. Multiply this estimated daily loss (before taxes) and multiply it by 9,000, as an estimate of the outer limit of the damages your company could be awarded. Thus, if you calculate that you have lost $500 per day, on the average, during the past 4 years (and assuming your business operates 7 days each week), your calculation would be $4,500,000 ($500 x 9,000). I discuss this formula at RPA Damages Formula - 9,000 X 1-Day's Damages.

The RPA lawsuits are brought locally, in the federal court servicing the plaintiff's area, with attorney Person in association with a local attorney admitted to the federal court. The lawsuits are brought mainly against manufacturers who are providing advertising and promotional programs (both money and services) to the major retailers without providing an equivalent program to the independent retailers in competition with the major retailers. Individual lawsuits proceed much more expeditiously than a single lawsuit having a hundred plaintiffs, for example. The multiplicity of similar lawsuits is expected to provide economies of scale for RPA litigation, to the benefit of the nation's independent distributors (including retailers, jobbers and wholesalers), consumers, and should be expected to reduce the amount of outsourcing of jobs to other countries, and weakening of the American economy.

Many 100,000's of Independent Businesses Are Being Driven Out of Business Illegally

The tremendous growth of major retailers (especially Wal-Mart and Sam's Club) during the past 30 years or so has destroyed or severely injured an estimated 1,000,000 small businesses. I believe this estimate is on the low side. Take, for example, that all small newspapers, radio stations and television stations have been adversely affected by this growth, losing the revenues they previously enjoyed from the small, independent businesses in their respective localities. As a rough guess, there are probably more than 200,000 small media adversely affected. At one time there were more than 40,000 independent auto parts retailers in the United States, and more than 25,000 of them have gone out of business.

The reason they are driven out of business is simple. The Robinson-Patman Act, a federal statute that prohibits price and service discrimination when a manufacturer or other supplier sells goods to competing businesses, has not been enforced by the federal government (FTC and Justice Department) since the Nixon Administration got started, in 1972.

The result is that major retailers did exactly what the Robinson-Patman Act was enacted in 1936 to stop, and until the Nixon Administration were stopped by meaningful enforcement activities by the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC accepted and acted upon complaints from disfavored purchasers and conducted investigations and commenced enforcement proceedings to stop illegal price discrimination. As a result, it was possible for small business to flourish against major corporations because, you should know, that small business is more efficient than major corporations and is able to deliver far superior service to the public. What it needs is lawful pricing, so that the major retailers pay the same price per unit, less any actual saving realized by the manufacturer because of the obvious higher volumes involved when selling to major retailers.

Because of the government's failure to enforce the RPA, the only way for a small business today to obtain what it is rightfully entitled to is to commence a lawsuit against the manufacturer to recover for certain violations of the RPA. The statute, as explained elsewhere, has 3 types of actionable violations, but this website focuses on only one: Section 2(d) and 2(e) violations with discriminatory advertising and promotional allowance programs, by which the manufacturer gives proportionally far more money and services to the major retailers than it gives to the competing independent businesses (broken down into the traditional wholesaler, jobber and retailer categories).

This Website Describes How an Aggrieved Small Business May Obtain Monetary Relief for RPA Violations

The various articles available by link in the left sidebar explain how you can commence an RPA action for violation of Sections 2(d)/2(e) by suing the manufacturer of the products you have been buying at discriminatory prices. This website assumes that only indirect purchasers would sue, unless a direct purchaser has been driven out of business (in which case the direct purchaser is no longer inhibited from suing).

The amount of recovery can be quite substantial and enable you to compete once again.

The website explains the costs and procedure, including the necessity of having a local counsel.

If you have any questions, you can always give antitrust (RPA) attorney Carl E. Person a call - 212-307-4444 or send him an email, to carlpers@ix.netcom.com. He answers all communications.

Now is the time for you or someone you know to take action to collect moneys that are owed by reason of violations of Sections 2(d)/2(e) of the Robinson-Patman Act. Remember, the antitrust statutes have a 4-year statute of limitations, dating back from the day you file a complaint. This means that injured businesses have a wasting asset, requiring prompt action to obtain the most from this opportunity.

I invite you to read the various articles about this type of litigation accessed from the left sidebar links.

Carl E. Person
Antitrust and civil rights attorney in New York City
Graduate of Harvard Law School
Author of 3 relevant books and about 75 websites
Candidate for NYS Attorney General (2006) and
Default Candidate for Mayor/Council in Nation's 18,500 Towns and Villages

Prepared by attorney Carl E. Person. For his c.v. or resume, click on Carl E. Person C.V.

If you have any questions, please call Carl Person at 212-307-4444, fax him at 212-307-0247, or email him at carlpers@ix.netcom.com

Copyright © 2006-2007 by Carl E. Person