Tariff Bureau Antitrust Policy Statement
ANTITRUST REMINDER: Associations and their members have unique exposure to antitrust scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission. That’s why great care must be taken by the Association, Tariff Bureau, and each of its members, collectively or individually, to minimize the risk of violating antitrust laws and also being personally and individually subject to antitrust investigations.
THIS MEANS YOU. Even if you are innocent, you can spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to defend yourself in an FTC investigation; so please use common sense in your business practices.
Do not meet with, or talk with, or telephone, or text message with, or e-mail with, or communicate on your own in any way with other movers to discuss rates. Such communication may be interpreted as a “conspiracy to fix rates” for which you could be penalized severely (including heavy fines and jail time). This applies to ANY rates, intrastate or interstate, household goods or not. The only way it is lawful to discuss rates is at a bonafide tariff bureau meeting under strict conditions pertaining to specific tariff proposals.
Since the Surface Transportation Board’s decision to rescind collective ratemaking on an interstate level, many people have asked what will become of our Illinois Movers Tariff Bureau. The short answer is that nothing will change. We are governed by statutes of the State of Illinois, and Illinois Movers Tariff Bureau, Inc. has met the statutory requirements in Illinois for collective ratemaking. Our Bureau’s oversight by the ILCC was investigated by the FTC several years ago, and they determined we are in compliance. Our tariff filing practices are closely monitored by the ILCC.
It’s critical to pay attention to the rules and conduct business of the Bureau lawfully. Please call us if you have any questions about proper procedures … and for goodness sake, do NOT talk with your competitors about rates or any other competitive issues (such as size of yellow pages ads, restricting market areas, etc.). It doesn’t matter which tariff you use. This does apply to you.