Macy's v. Sunbeam

When Manhattan's R. H. Macy & Co. started a price war last spring, it trimmed the tag on Sunbeam Mixmasters to $26.59, more than $3 below the wholesale price. Last week Sunbeam slapped a $6,000,000 triple-damages suit on Macy's, charging it had unlawfully restrained trade by using Mixmasters as loss-leaders. The price war followed the U.S. Supreme Court decision that retailers such as Macy's, who hadn't signed contracts with manufacturers, need not abide by fixed pricing.* During the war, Macy's Mixmaster sales, says Sunbeam, jumped from 3.3% of New York's total to 56.2%. Even though Sunbeam now refuses to sell to Macy's, and has all its wholesalers on fair-trade contracts, Macy's still manages to buy Sunbeam products. "Macy's" says Sunbeam, has "corrupted various Sunbeam contracting wholesalers and retailers to violate their contracts by reselling Sunbeam's merchandise to Macy's at less than the contract fair-trade price."

* Sunbeam's suit was based on the Sherman antitrust law rather than fair-trade laws. Last week Sunbeam lost a decision in the U.S. circuit court of appeals when a verdict ordering two Sunbeam retailers to sell at fair-trade prices was reversed to bring it in line with the Supreme Court's decision.

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