DC/Mid-Atlantic Affordable Gasoline Coalition
Stop Monopolies and Price Fixing-- Affordable Gasoline Now!
Support DC City Council Bill 19-299
What is DC Council Bill 19-299?
DC Council Bill 19-299-- is a bill to amend the Retail Service Station act of 1976 to prohibit gasoline distributors from owning and operating retail service stations in the District of Columbia
Premise for Support of DC Council Bill 19-299:
The freedom to pursue a livelihood, operate a business and otherwise compete in the marketplace is essential to any free enterprise system. Competition creates incentives for businesses to earn customer loyalty by offering quality goods and services at reasonable prices. Accordingly, legally operating enterprises should not be hampered or impaired by unreasonable laws and or "monopolies" that unfairly profit at a rival's expense.
Malicious or monopolistic practices aimed at injuring a rival may constitute an improper purpose of competition. Monopolistic behavior includes any agreement between two or more people that has at its purpose the exclusion or reduction of competition in a given market. The Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890 makes such behavior illegal by proscribing the formation of contracts, combinations, and conspiracies in restraint of trade. 15 U.S.C.A sections 1et seq. Corporate mergers anacquisitions that suppress competition are prohibited by the Clayton Act of 1914, as amended by the Robinson-Patman Act of 1936. 15 U.S.C.A. sections 12 et seq. The Clayton Act also regulates the use of predatory pricing anunlawful tying agreements. Predatory pricing is the se of below-market prices to inflice pecuniary injury on competitors.
About Affordable Gasoline Coalition
The Affordable Gasoline Coalition will represent a wide range of interests within the gasoline retail service station industry before federal, state and municipal lawmakers. The scope of our vision will be to insert supportive language into pending legislation and direct legislative activity with respect to industry specific reform measures where the gasoline retail industry is at risk. The industry cannot allow any legislative body to create the narrative that current laws and regulations governing the sale/resale, ditribution, ownership and oprations of gasoline retail outlets are fair and just to the merchants and residents of the DC/Mid-Atlantic region. We hold ourselves indirect opposition to all forms of open and masked monopolies/price-fixing.
Interested in learning more?
Committed to helping DC residents and the business community obtain lower fair pricing at the gasoline pump
