CONSTITUTIONAL LAW-RESALE PRICE MAINTENANCE -FAIR TRADE ACTS

Authors

Joseph H. Mueller, University of Michigan Law SchoolFollow

Abstract

Four cases upholding the validity of the California and Illinois Fair Trade Acts were recently sustained by the United States Supreme Court. All four cases involved a similar set of facts. Plaintiffs, the owners or authorized distributors of certain well known trade-marked articles, entered into a series of contracts with wholesalers and retailers fixing the resale prices of their branded products. When defendants, certain retailers who had refused to enter into such agreements, persisted in reselling the articles below the prices stipulated in the contracts with other retailers, plaintiffs sued to enjoin them under the provisions of the state Fair Trade Acts. The injunctions were allowed by the California and Illinois Supreme Courts over the objection of defendants that the statutes were invalid under the due process and equal protection clauses. On appeal to the United States Supreme Court it was held that the statutes were legitimate measures designed to protect the good will of a producer as symbolized in his trade-marked goods. Old Dearborn Distributing Co. v. Seagram-Distillers Corp., McNeil v. Joseph Triner Corp., Pep Boys v. Pyroil Sales Co., Kunsman v. Max Factor & Co., (U. S. 1936) 57 S. Ct. 139, 147.

Recommended Citation

Joseph H. Mueller, CONSTITUTIONAL LAW-RESALE PRICE MAINTENANCE -FAIR TRADE ACTS, 35 Mich. L. Rev. 659 (1937).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol35/iss4/13