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ANTITRUST LAWS, PROHIBITED RELATIONSHIPS, AND SMALL BUSINESS INVESTMENT COMPANIES Title 15 of the United States Code

Restraint of Trade

15 U.S.C. 1.-Every contract, combination in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy, in restraint of trade or commerce among the several States, or with foreign nations is hereby declared to be illegal: Provided, That nothing herein contained shall render illegal, contracts or agreements prescribing minimum prices for the resale of a commodity which bears, or the label or container of which bears, the trade mark, brand, or name of the producer or distributor of such commodity and which is in free and open competition with commodities of the same general class produced or distributed by others, when contracts or agreements of that description are lawful as applied to intrastate transactions, under any statute, law, or public policy now or hereafter in effect in any State, Territory, or the District of Columbia in which such resale is to be made, or to which the commodity is to be transported for such resale, and the making of such contracts or agreements shall not be an unfair method of competition under section 5, as amended and supplemented, of the Act entitled "An Act to create a Federal Trade Commission, to define its powers and duties, and for other purposes", approved September 26, 1914: Provided further, That the preceding proviso shall not make lawful any contract or agreement, providing for the establishment or maintenance of minimum resale prices on any commodity herein involved, between manufacturers, or between producers, or between wholesalers, or between brokers, or between factors, or between retailers, or between persons, firms, or corporations in competition with each other. Every person who shall make any contract or engage in any combination or conspiracy hereby declared to be illegal shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, on conviction thereof, shall be punished by fine not exceeding $50,000, or by imprisonment not exceeding one year, or by both said punishments, in the discretion of the court.

Monopoly

15 U.S.C. 2.-Every person who shall monopolize, or attempt to monopolize, or combine or conspire with any other person or persons, to monopolize any part of the trade or commerce among the several States, or with foreign nations, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, on conviction thereof, shall be punished by fine not exceeding fifty thousand dollars, or by imprisonment not exceeding one year, or by both said punishments, in the discretion of the court.

Acquisitions Prohibited

15 U.S.C. 18.-No corporation engaged in commerce shall acquire, directly or indirectly, the whole or any part of the stock or other share capital and no corporation subject to the jurisdiction of the Federal Trade Commission shall acquire the whole or any part of the assets of another corporation engaged also in commerce, where in any line of commerce in any section of the country, the effect of such acquisition may be substantially to lessen competition, or to tend to create a monopoly.

No corporation shall acquire, directly or indirectly, the whole or any part of the stock or other share capital and no corporation subject to the jurisdiction of the Federal Trade Commission shall acquire the whole or any part of the assets of one or more corporations engaged in commerce, where in any line of commerce in any section of the country, the effect of such acquisition, of such stocks or assets, or of the use of such stock by the voting or granting of proxies or otherwise, may be substantially to lessen competition, or to tend to create a monopoly.

This section shall not apply to corporations purchasing such stock solely for investment and not using the same by voting or otherwise to bring about, or in attempting to bring about, the substantial lessening of competition. Nor shall anything contained in this section prevent a corporation engaged in

commerce from causing the formation of subsidiary corporations for the actual carrying on of their immediate lawful business, or the natural and legitimate branches or extensions thereof, or from owning and holding all or a part of the stock of such subsidiary corporations, when the effect of such formation is not to substantially lessen competition.

Nor shall anything herein contained be construed to prohibit any common carrier subject to the laws to regulate commerce from aiding in the construction of branches or short lines so located as to become feeders to the main line of the company so aiding in such construction or from acquiring or owning all or any part of the stock of such branch lines, nor to prevent any such common carrier from acquiring and owning all or any part of the stock of a branch or short line constructed by an independent company where there is no substantial competition between the company owning the branch line so constructed and the company owning the main line acquiring the property or an interest therein, nor to prevent such common carrier from extending any of its lines through the medium of the acquisition of stock or otherwise of any other common carrier where there is no substantial competition between the company extending its lines and the company whose stock, property, or an interest therein is so acquired.

Nothing contained in this section shall be held to affect or impair any right heretofore legally acquired: Provided, That nothing in this section shall be held or construed to authorize or make lawful anything heretofore prohibited or made illegal by the antitrust laws, nor to exempt any person from the penal provisions thereof or the civil remedies therein provided.

Nothing contained in this section shall apply to transactions duly consummated pursuant to authority given by the Civil Aeronautics Board, Federal Communications Commission, Federal Power Commission, Interstate Commerce Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission in the exercise of its jurisdiction under section 10' of the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935, the United States Maritime Commission, or the Secretary of Agriculture under any statu

tory provision vesting such power in such Commission, Secretary, or Board.

Interlocking Directorates

15 U.S.C. 19.—No private banker or director, officer, or employee of any member bank of the Federal Reserve System or any branch thereof shall be at the same time a director, officer, or employee of any other bank, banking association, savings bank, or trust company organized under the National Bank Act or organized under the laws of any State or of the District of Columbia, or any branch thereof, except that the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System may by regulation permit such service as a director, officer, or employee of not more than one other such institution or branch thereof; but the foregoing prohibition shall not apply in the case of any one or more of the following or any branch thereof:

(1) A bank, banking association, savings bank, or trust company, more than 90 per centum of the stock of which is owned directly or indirectly by the United States or by any corporation of which the United States directly or indirectly owns more than 90 per centum of the stock.

(2) A bank, banking association, savings bank, or trust company which has been placed formally in liquidation or which is in the hands of a receiver, conservator, or other official exercising similar functions.

(3) A corporation, principally engaged in international or foreign banking or banking in a dependency or insular possession of the United States which has entered into an agreement with the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System pursuant to section 25 of the Federal Reserve Act.

(4) A bank, banking association, savings bank, or trust company, more than 50 per centum of the common stock of which is owned directly or indirectly by persons who own directly or indirectly more than 50 per centum of the common stock of such member bank.

(5) A bank, banking association, savings bank, or trust company not located and having no branch in the same city, town, or village as that in which such member bank or any branch thereof is located, or in any

city, town, or village contiguous or adjacent thereto.

(6)) A bank, banking association, savings bank, or trust company not engaged in a class or classes of business in which such member bank is engaged.

(7) A mutual savings bank having no capital stock.

Until February 1, 1939, nothing in this section shall prohibit any director, officer, or employee of any member bank of the Federal Reserve System, or any branch thereof, who is lawfully serving at the same time as a private banker or as a director, officer, or employee of any other bank, banking association, savings bank, or trust company, or any branch thereof, on the date of enactment of the Banking Act of 1935,5" from continuing such service.

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System is authorized and directed to enforce compliance with this section, and to prescribe such rules and regulations as it deems necessary for that purpose.

From and after two years from the date of the approval of this Act no person at the same time shall be a director in any two or more corporations, any one of which. has capital, surplus, and undivided profits aggregating more than $1,000,000, engaged in whole or in part in commerce, other than banks, banking associations, trust companies and common carriers subject to the Act to regulate commerce, approved February fourth, eighteen hundred and eighty-seven, if such corporations are or shall have been theretofore, by virtue of their business and location of operation, competitors, so that the elimination of competition by agreement between them would constitute a violation of any of the provisions of any of the antitrust laws. The eligibility of a director under the foregoing provisions shall be determined by the aggregate amount of the capital, surplus, and undivided profits, exclusive of dividends declared but not paid to stockholders, at the end of the fiscal year of said corporation next preceding the election of directors and when a director has been elected in accordance with the provisions of this Act; it shall be lawful

August 23, 1935. 15 U.S.C. 18. 15 U.S.C. 19.

for him to continue as such for one year thereafter.

When any person elected or chosen as a director or officer or selected as an employee of any bank or other corporation subject to the provisions of this Act is eligible at the time of his election or selection to act for such bank or other coporation in such capacity his eligibility to act in such capacity shall not be affected and he shall not become or be deemed amenable to any of the provisions hereof by reason of any change in the affairs of such bank or other corporation from whatsoever cause, whether specifically excepted by any of the provisions hereof or not, until the expiration of one year from the date of his election or employment.

Enforcement Where Applicable to Banks

15 U.S.C. 21.-(a) Authority to enforce compliance with sections 2, 3, 7,58 and 8 59 of this Act by the persons respectively subject thereto is hereby vested in the Interstate Commerce Commission where applicable to common carriers subject to the Interstate Commerce Act, as amended; in the Federal Communications Commission where applicable to common carriers engaged in wire or radio communication or radio transmission of energy; in the Civil Aeronautics Board where applicable to air carriers subject to the Civil Aeronautics Act of 1938; in the Federal Reserve Board where applicable to banks, banking associations, and trust companies; and in the Federal Trade Commission where applicable to all other character of commerce to be exercised as follows:

Acting as Indenture Trustee

15 U.S.C. 77jjj.—(a) (1) The indenture to be qualified shall require that there shall at all times be one or more trustees thereunder, at least one of whom shall at all times be a corporation organized and doing business under the laws of the United States or of any State or Territory or of the District of Columbia (referred to in this subchapter as the institutional trustee), which (A) is authorized under such laws to exercise corporate trust powers, and (B) is subject to

supervision or examination by Federal, State, Territorial, or District of Columbia authority.

(2) The indenture to be qualified shall require that such institutional trustee shall have at all times a combined capital and surplus of a specified minimum amount, which shall not be less than $150,000. If such institutional trustee publishes reports of condition at least annually, pursuant to law or to the requirements of said supervising or examining authority, the indenture may provide that, for the purposes of this paragraph, the combined capital and surplus of such trustee shall be deemed to be its combined capital and surplus as set forth in its most recent report of condition so published.

(3) If the indenture to be qualified requires or permits the appointment of one or more co-trustees in addition to such institutional trustee, such indenture shall provide that the rights, powers, duties, and obligations conferred or imposed upon the trustees or any of them shall be conferred or imposed upon and exercised or performed by such institutional trustee, or such institutional trustee and such co-trustees jointly, except to the extent that under any law of any jurisdiction in which any particular act or acts are to be performed, such institutional trustee shall be incompetent or unqualified to perform such act or acts, in which event such rights, powers, duties, and obligations shall be exercised and performed by such co-trustees.

(4) In the case of certificates of interest or participation, the indenture to be qualified shall require that the indenture trustee or trustees have the legal power to exercise all of the rights, powers, and privileges of a holder of the security or securities in which such certificates evidence an interest or participation.

(b) The indenture to be qualified shall provide that if any indenture trustee has or shall acquire any conflicting interest as hereinafter defined, (i) such trustee shall, within ninety days after ascertaining that it has such conflicting interest, either eliminate such conflicting interest or resign, such resignation to become effective upon the appointment of a successor trustee and such successor's acceptance of such appointment, and the obligor upon the indenture securities shall take prompt steps to have a successor appointed

in the manner provided in the indenture; and (ii) in the event that such trustee shall fail to comply with the provisions of clause (i) of this subsection, such trustee shall, within ten days after the expiration of such ninetyday period, transmit notice of such failure to the indenture security holders in the manner and to the extent provided in subsection (c) of section 77mmm of this title; and (iii) subject to the provisions of subsection (e) of section 77000 of this title, any security holder who has been a bona fide holder of indenture securities for at least six months may, on behalf of himself and all others similarly situated, petition any court of competent jurisdiction for the removal of such trustee, and the appointment of a successor, if such trustee fails, after written request therefor by such holder, to comply with the provisions of clause (i) of this subsection. For the purposes of this subsection, an indenture trustee shall be deemed to have a conflicting interest if

(1) such trustee is trustee under another indenture under which any other securities, or certificates of interest or participation in any other securities, of an obligor upon the indenture securities are outstanding unless (A) the indenture securities are collateral trust notes under which the only collateral consists of securities issued under such other indenture, or (B) such other indenture is a collateral trust indenture under which the only collateral consists of indenture securities, or (C) such obligor has no substantial unmortgaged assets and is engaged primarily in the business of owning, or of owning and developing and/or operating, real estate, and the indenture to be qualified and such other indenture are secured by wholly separate and distinct parcels of real estate: Provided, That the indenture to be qualified may contain a provision excluding from the operation of this paragraph another indenture or indentures under which other securities, or certificates of interest or participation in other securities, of such an obligor are outstanding, if (i) the indenture to be qualified and such other indenture or indentures are wholly unsecured, and such other indenture or indentures are specifically described in the indenture to be qualified or are thereafter

qualified under this subchapter, unless the Commission shall have found and declared by order pursuant to subsection (b) of section 77eee or subsection (c) of section 77ggg of this title that differences exist between the provisions of the indenture to be qualified and the provisions of such other indenture or indentures which are so likely to involve a material conflict of interest as to make it necessary in the public interest or for the protection of investors to disqualify such trustee from acting as such under one of such indentures, or (ii) the issuer shall have sustained the burden of proving, on application to the Commission and after opportunity for hearing thereon, that trusteeship under the indenture to be qualified and such other indenture is not so likely to involve a material conflict of interest as to make it necessary in the public interest or for the protection of investors to disqualify such trustee from acting as such under one of such indentures;

(2) such trustee or any of its directors or executive officers is an obligor upon the indenture securities or an underwriter for such an obligor;

(3) such trustee directly or indirectly controls or is directly or indirectly controlled by or is under direct or indirect common control with an obligor upon the indenture securities or an underwriter for such an obligor;

(4) such trustee or any of its directors or executive officers is a director, officer, partner, employee, appointee, or representative of an obligor upon the indenture securities, or of an underwriter (other than the trustee itself) for such an obligor who is currently engaged in the business of underwriting, except that (A) one individual may be a director and/or an executive officer of the trustee and a director and/or an executive officer of such obligor, but may not be at the same time an executive officer of both the trustee and of such obligor, and (B) if and so long as the number of directors of the trustee in office is more than nine, one additional individual may be a director and/or an executive officer of the trustee and a director of such obligor, and (C) such trustee may be designated by any such obligor or by any underwriter for

any such obligor, to act in the capacity of transfer agent, registrar, custodian, paying agent, fiscal agent, escrow agent, or depositary, or in any other similar capacity, or, subject to the provisions of paragraph (1) of this subsection, to act as trustee, whether under an indenture or otherwise;

(5) 10 per centum or more of the voting securities of such trustee is beneficially owned either by an obligor upon the indenture securities or by any director, partner, or executive officer thereof, or 20 per centum or more of such voting securities is beneficially owned, collectively, by any two or more of such persons; or 10 per centum or more of the voting securities of such trustee is beneficially owned either by an underwriter for any such obligor or by any director, partner, or executive officer thereof, or is beneficially owned, collectively, by any two or more such persons;

(6) such trustee is the beneficial owner of, or holds as collateral security for an obligation which is in default as hereinafter defined, (A) 5 per centum or more of the voting securities, or 10 per centum or more of any other class of security, of an obligor upon the indenture securities, not including indenture securities and securities issued under any other indenture under which such trustee is also trustee, or (B) 10 per centum or more of any class of security of an underwriter for any such obligor;

(7) such trustee is the beneficial owner of, or holds as collateral security for an obligation which is in default as hereinafter defined, 5 per centum or more of the voting securities of any person who, to the knowledge of the trustee, owns 10 per centum or more of the voting securities of, or controls directly or indirectly or is under direct or indirect common control with, an obligor upon the indenture securities;

(8) such trustee is the beneficial owner of, or holds as collateral security for an obligation which is in default as hereinafter defined, 10 per centum or more of any class of security of any person who, to the knowledge of the trustee, owns 50 per centum or more of the voting securities of an obligor upon the indenture securities; or

(9) such trustee owns, on May 15 in any calendar year, in the capacity of execu

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