Trade Associations—Timidity or Tempered Expansion of Roles

• Author: James T. Halverson
• DOI: 10.1177/0003603X7401900404
• Published date: 01 December 1974
• Date: 01 December 1974
• Subject Matter: Article

TRADE

ASSOCIATIONS-TIMIDITY OR

TEMPERED

EXPANSION

OF

ROLES

by

JAMES

T. HALVERSON-

I am pleased to be participating in this 10th Annual Sym-

posium on

Trade

Association Law

and

Practice. Iam also

happy

to be sharing the podium

today

with

Basil Mezines.

In

addition to being former colleagues

at

the

FTC,

Basil and

I

are

old friends,

and

Iwelcome this opportunity to exchange

views.

This is the second

year

in which I have

had

the oppor-

tunity

to participate

in

this symposium.

Last

year, I spoke

on the subject of

"Expanded

Roles

for

Trade

Associations." 1

This

year

I have been asked to comment on why

"It

pays

for

associations to be timid" in the

area

of affirmative action.

My first response to this rhetorical question is

that

I'm

not

sure

that

it

does

pay

for

associations to be timid. I feel

that

there is room

for

associations to

play

an

active role,

and

sometimes even

an

aggressive role, tempered, however, by

areasonable degree of

caution-but

not

timidity. Still, I can

understand why some would counsel associations to be timid.

The consequences

for

a

trade

association which oversteps

the bounds of permissible activity

under

the

antitrust

laws,

even unintentionally, can be disastrous

for

both the associ-

ation

and

for

its

members-including

possible treble damage

liability

for

each member

and

dissolution of the association

by

court

decree.

•Director,

Bureau

of Competition,

Federal

Trade Commission.

AUTHOR'S

NOTE:

The views expressed herein are my own. As a

member of the

FTC

staff, Ido

not

in

any

sense speak for

the

Com-

mission or

any

of the Commissioners.

118

ANTITRUST

BULL.

221 (1973).

711