H. B. 2100
(By Delegate Louisos)
[Introduced
February 9, 2005
; referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary.]
A BILL to amend the code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by
adding thereto a new section, designated §47-11A-3a
, relating
to unfair trade practices; providing that predatory pricing is
unlawful; and providing a criminal penalty.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended
by adding thereto a new section, designated §47-11A-3a
, to read as
follows:
ARTICLE 11A. UNFAIR TRADE PRACTICES.
§47-11A-3a. When discrimination in pricing prohibited; penalty.
It is unlawful for any retailer or wholesaler to engage in the
predatory pricing of goods. As used in the section, "predatory
pricing" means discrimination in price between different purchasers of goods of like grade and quality, where the effect of the
discrimination is to injure competitors and destroy competition.
The term "predatory pricing" does not include: (1) Differences in
price that make allowance for differences in the cost of
manufacture, sale, or delivery resulting from different methods or
quantities in which goods are sold and delivered, when quantities
do not exceed limits for a particular commodity or class of
commodities set by the Federal Trade Commission; (2) price changes
in response to changing conditions affecting the market for or
marketability of the goods; or (3) sales in good faith in
discontinuance of business in the goods concerned. Nothing in this
section prohibits retailers or wholesalers from selecting their own
customers, when selection of customers is otherwise lawful and is
not in violation of federal law governing restraint of trade. Any
person resorting to the practice of predatory pricing is guilty of
a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, is subject to the
penalty set forth in section eleven of this article.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to provide that certain
discriminatory pricing practices prohibited under the federal
Robinson-Patman Act are also unlawful under West Virginia law.
This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.
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