Federal Trade Commission v. Motion Picture Advertising Service Co., Inc. (344 U.S. 392)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided February 2, 1953 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 344 U.S. 392 · 73 S. Ct. 361
- Docket
- No. 75
- Argued
- December 8, 1952
- Decided
- February 2, 1953
- Term
- October Term 1952
- Vote
- 7–2
- Majority author
- Justice Douglas
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
How the Justices voted
- Majority
- Chief Justice Vinson, Justice Minton, Justice Clark, Justice R. H. Jackson, Justice Douglas (wrote), Justice Reed, Justice Black
- Dissenting
- Justice Burton, Justice Frankfurter (wrote)
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Douglas delivered the opinion of the Court. Respondent is a producer and distributor of advertising motion pictures which depict and describe commodities offered for sale by commercial establishments. Respondent contracts with theatre owners for the display of these advertising films and ships the films from its place of business in Louisiana to theatres in twenty-seven states and the District of Columbia. These contracts run for terms up to five years, the majority being for one or two years. A substantial number of them contain a provision that the theatre owner will display only advertising films furnished by respondent, with the exception of films for charities or for governmental organizations, or announcements of coming attractions. Respondent and three other companies in the same business (against which proceedings were also brought) together had exclusive arrangements for advertising films with approximately three-fourths of the total number of theatres in the United States which display advertising films for compensation. Respondent had exclusive contracts with almost 40 percent of the theatres in the area where it operates. The Federal Trade Commission, the petitioner, filed a complaint charging respondent with the use of “unfair methods of competition” in violation of § 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act, 38 Stat. 717, 719, 52 Stat. Ill, 15 U. S. C.…
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