“To strengthen the prohibition on price discrimination under the Clayton Act, and for other purposes.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section amends Section 2 of the Clayton Act (15 U.S.C. 13), known as the Robinson-Patman Act—which prohibits price discrimination between purchasers of commodities of like grade and quality where it may substantially lessen competition or tend to create a monopoly—as follows: (1) expands applicability from conduct "in commerce" to conduct "in commerce or in any activity affecting commerce"; (2) broadens coverage from "commodities" and "goods" to "products or services," inserts "service provision" after "sale," and authorizes "functional discounts" alongside cost-based differentials; (3) in subsection (b), expands the prima facie case of discrimination to include persons charged with inducing or receiving it and strikes the "meeting competition" defense; (4) in subsection (f), rewrites to prohibit inducing or receiving the benefit of a violation, except for persons with annual retail sales not exceeding $100 billion unless done knowingly; and (5) adds subsection (g) defining "purchase" and "purchaser" to include any exchange of value for a product or service regardless of title passage or control. This section also amends Section 4 of the Clayton Act (15 U.S.C. 15) to presume injury and damages equal to the amount of discrimination in private actions under Section 2, with the option to prove additional damages. (Thus, these changes expand enforcement against price discrimination to services and indirect commerce activities, eliminate a key seller defense, limit liability for smaller retailers, ease private plaintiff burdens, and apply to transactions on or after enactment.)