United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

FTC v. Henry Broch & Co., 368 U.S. 360 (1962)

Federal Trade Commission v. Henry Broch & Co.

No. 74

Argued November 16, 1961

Decided January 15, 1962

368 U.S. 360

Syllabus

After this Court had sustained, 363 U. S. 363 U.S. 166, the finding of the Federal Trade Commission that respondent had violated § 2(c) of the Clayton Act by reducing its commissions on sales by only one seller to only one buyer, the Court of Appeals, on remand, modified sua sponte the Commission's cease and desist order so as to eliminate all references to "any other seller principal" and to "any other buyer," thus limiting application of the order to future sales by the same seller to the same buyer.

Held: in the circumstances of this case, the order should have been affirmed in the form entered by the Commission. Pp. 368 U. S. 361-368.

(a) The Commission has a wide discretion to formulate a remedy adequate to prevent respondent's repetition of the violation it was found to have committed, and it cannot be said that, in paragraph (1) of its order, the Commission exceeded its discretion in banning such repetitions in connection with transactions involving an seller and buyer, rather than simply forbidding recurrence of the transgression in sales between the same seller and buyer. Pp. 368 U. S. 363-364.

(b) In the circumstances of this case and on this record, the attempt of the Court of Appeals to redress the asserted overbroadness of paragraph (2) of the Commission's order by the inapt device of confining that paragraph to sales between the same parties was inappropriate. Pp. 368 U. S. 364-367.

285 F.2d 764, reversed.

Page 368 U. S. 361