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The problem which I am attempting to cure with this "ViolationGram" Website is the one created when the major retail chains or superstores, as their primary defense to RPA actions alleging they are liable under Section 2(f) of the Robinson-Patman Act, claim that they are totally unaware that the massive rebates and other benefits they are obtaining from the manufacturers were not also being given to the superstores' independent competitors.

Independent retailers which are still in business are reluctant to sue their supplying manufacturers, for fear of not being able to buy directly from them any longer (which of course would put the independent out of business, in many or most instances), but the same is not true as to suits against competitors.

The only problem is that the competitors may have a defense available to them which is not available to the manufacturer, the defense that the competitor did not unlawfully induce or knowingly receive the favorable price.

RPA litigation against competitors winds up for the most part to focus on whether the competitor knew it was receiving unlawfully low prices, and this website is an effort to reduce the scope of that litigation by providing proof that each superstore knew, by hundreds or thousands of notices being received each year from independent competitors, that the independents are not receiving any or most of the DNA Code rebates which the superstores know that they (the superstores) are demanding and receiving from manufacturers.

Of course, we know that such defense of not knowing is not true, but the problem is how do you prove that the superstores knew they were getting a lower price than the independent stores they are putting out of business?

If you ask the top executive of the superstores in a pre-trial deposition whether they knew or not, they will inevitably deny that they knew, and sometimes even try to explain why they had no reason to know -- as if they never heard of any RPA actions against them before.

Thus, regardless of how much extra discount from invoice they obtain, the superstores fall back on a defense in RPA Section 2(f) that requires (to establish liability) it be proven that the superstores (or other purchasers from a manufacturer) unlawfully induced or knowingly received the discriminatory price.

This website provides a mechanism where the nation's independent retailers can notify their superstore competitors (and in due course we'll add an option to notify the manufacturers at the same time) that they are obtaining a lower per-unit price than the notifying, small-business competitor.

The notice will be kept for further use by this website, and should also be kept by the small business sending the notice.

In discovery, these emails will provide a trail to show who knew about the discriminatory prices, and what each of the persons did with such knowledge, which generally tends to be not very much, except go to the bank with the sales taken from the victimized independent retailers.

The New York State Trial Lawyers Association during the late 1970's and early 1980's was faced with a similar situation. NYC was denying that it knew about the existence of hundreds or possibly thousands of major holes in the city's thousands of miles of roads and sidewalks, even though NYC's employees (police, fire, sanitation, elected officials, schoolteachers, travelled over the same roads and sidewalks every day.

The courts in New York held that there had to be actual notice that NYC knew about the existence of a specific pothole before NYC could be held liable for the damage caused to a motorist or pedestrian or other person for NYC's failure to repair the pothole.

• AutoZone
• Advance Auto
• Barnes & Noble
• Borders Group, Inc.
• Bed Bath & Beyond
• BJ's Wholesale Club, Inc., One Mercer Road, Natick, Massachusetts 01760, Tel. 508-651-7400, Fax 508-651-6114, Herbert J. Zarkin, Chairman; John J. Nugent, President and C.E.O.;
• Costco
• CSK Auto
• CVS Pharmacy
• Firestone
• Goodyear
• Home Depot
• Keystone Automotive
• Kmart
• Kroger's
• O'Reilly's Automotive
• Pep Boys
• Rite-Aid
• Sam's Club,
• Target
• Venture
• Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., xxx, Tel. xxx-xxx-xxxx, Fax xxx-xxx-xxxx, S. Robson Walton, Chairman; H. Lee Scott, Jr., President and C.E.O.; Thomas Schoewe, CFO, Exec. Vice President; email address of H. Lee Scott, Jr., hlscott@walmart.com

While waiting for needed programming to enable email ViolationGrams to be sent conveniently by website users, we are providing forms of letter which can be printed out and mailed to the top officials of the companies. As to companies not yet posted, you can use download one of the forms below, and then make the appropriate corrections. For notice to manufacturers, use the Goodyear form. For notice to superstores or warehouses, use the Wal-Mart form.

The available forms are:

Your help is needed to put the superstores on notice that they are obtaining rebates and other benefits not made available to you. This notice will be helpful for you and others to prove that the superstores knew they were obtaining a lower per-unit price and continued to do so after receiving the notice.