Trade custom carries no moral authority when an industry is evenly split

Evidence

The Commission finds, as a matter of legislative fact, that members of the oil industry are substantially evenly divided with respect to the question of the fairness or unfairness of the free pump device as a means of marketing gasoline. It concludes, as a matter of law, that Respondent’s practice cannot be considered to be a violation of Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act on the theory that it contravenes a generally prevailing sense of fair dealing in the industry. — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process, 540

Categorization

• XREF: Pays off the volume’s recurring interpretive thread: a standard keyed to community practice fails when the community itself is divided. — connects to: Trade with outsiders splits a self-sufficient group into opposed producer factions — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 600

Broader Connections

• Trade with outsiders splits a self-sufficient group into opposed producer factions #corroborates (0.82) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 600