Sandura Co. v. Federal Trade Commission‪.‬

OSULLIVAN, Circuit Judge: This matter involves the petition of Sandura Company for review of parts of an order of the Federal Trade Commission which found Sandura guilty of unfair methods of competition in violation of Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act, 15 U.S.C.A. ? 45. The condemned conduct consisted of resale price fixing arrangements and the imposition of territorial limitations upon the distributors through whom Sandura distributed its vinyl floor covering products, Sandran and Crown Vinyl. Sandura does not appeal from that part of the Commissions order finding illegal its fixing of resale prices at both the distributor and dealer levels. Under the condemned distribution system, Sandura assigned defined geographical areas to its various distributors and such areas became "closed territories" in the sense that each distributor was permitted to sell Sandura products only within his assigned territory and only to retail dealers located therein. We deal here primarily with the question whether such arrangements, as initiated and maintained by Sandura, violate Section 5 of the Act. We hold that they do not and, accordingly, deny enforcement of the Commissions order in this regard. Sanduras challenge to certain remedial aspects of the Commissions order will be examined following exposition of our reasons for disagreeing with the Commissions condemnation of Sanduras "closed territory" system.