3334. Affirmative Defense to Locality Discrimination Claim Manufacturer Meeting Downstream Competition

3334. Affirmative Defense to Locality Discrimination Claim--Manufacturer Meeting Downstream Competition Instruction No 1 Request by Plaintiff Given as Proposed Refused Withdrawn Request by Defendant Given as Modified Requested by Given on Court's Motion Judge Instruction No 1 [Name of defendant] claims that any locality discrimination proven by [name of plaintiff] was justified by the need to meet competition. To succeed, [name of defendant] must prove that [his/her/its] sales of [product/service] to [name of reselling customer] were made in an attempt, in good faith, to meet the legal prices of [name of competitor's reseller] selling in the ordinary course of business in the same locality or trade area. To meet legal prices means to lower the price to a point that the seller believes in good faith is at or above the legal price of the competitor of the reseller whose price it is trying to meet. That is, a seller may attempt to "meet," but not "beat," what in good faith it believes to be that competitor's legal price. ________________________________________________________________________________ New September 2003