Skip to main content

Antitrust Policy

The Manufacturers Alliance believes that vigorous, fair competition is essential to the maintenance of the free enterprise system. In addition, strict compliance with federal and state antitrust laws clearly is in the best interest of Manufacturers Alliance and its membership. In connection with any meetings of Manufacturers Alliance member company executives, including related social functions, or other activities, Manufacturers Alliance staff personnel must take reasonable steps to ensure that representatives from its member companies never discuss or agree in actual or apparent restraint of trade to:

  1. Prices, future prices, pricing or pricing policies (buyers and sellers alike have a legal right to buy and sell in a market untainted by anticompetitive agreements or even informal, unwritten understandings);
  2. Specific terms or conditions of doing business with customers such as specific credit terms and credit availability, discounts, rebates, warranty terms, return policies, limitations on liability, and so forth (these subjects are viewed by the antitrust authorities as directly or indirectly affecting prices);
  3. Profits or profit margins;
  4. Specific market shares of any competitors;
  5. The nature of a bid or one’s intent to bid or not to bid for a particular business;
  6. A willingness to serve only certain customers or territories, or to build only certain types of products;
  7. An intention or willingness not to serve a particular customer, to purchase only from a particular supplier, or to restrict existing or future cooperation with another competitor; and
  8. Negative or derogatory remarks about any supplier, distributor, or customer.