Legal Limitations on Discussions at RISI Conferences

The avoidance of collusive practices by members of a trade or industry, which affect prices, fees, or the ability of others to compete is a major goal of the antitrust laws.

In an effort to show our commitment in the enforcement of these laws, RISI will have David Simon, the antitrust counsel to the Fibre Box Association and the International Corrugated Case Association, in attendance throughout the conference program.

Mr. Simon has provided antitrust counsel and monitoring to the industry for more than 10 years. Onsite, Mr. Simon's participation will be as follows:

• He will review and approve the conference program and presentations to ensure compliance with antitrust regulations.
• He will speak briefly before the program commences reminding participants and speakers about the antitrust laws and how these laws apply with respect to the conference.
• He will attend the conference program to ensure that the content of the presentations and discussions are the previously approved content that is compliant with antitrust laws.

For your information, below is a brief summary of some of the antitrust regulations:

• Price-fixing is clearly illegal. This includes concerted action to raise, lower or stabilize prices. Price-fixing is a per se violation; that is, in itself it is deemed to be an unreasonable restraint of trade. No company should exchange or discuss prices with a competitor at a RISI meeting or elsewhere.
• There must be no agreement among competitors to limit or otherwise control production volumes. Discussion of production volumes or quotas should be avoided.
• Agreements to allocate customers or markets are also illegal. Discussion from which allocation agreements could be inferred must be avoided.
• Agreements to channel distribution are unlawful per se. For instance, agreements to sell only to contractors or only to builders would violate the law.
• Conspiracies in restraint of trade are seldom proved by direct evidence of agreements; rather, they are usually proved by inferences from writings, conduct and communications between competitors. Verbal understandings on prices, etc., are as illegal as written understandings. Such can be proved and, in fact, much of the evidence in antitrust cases consists of verbal communications.

We encourage conference participants to avoid discussions or activities from which unlawful action could be inferred. Any such activity could subject attending companies to costly and highly prejudicial antitrust attack.

If at any time, during the course of the conference you, as an individual, feel that the discussion borders on possible violation of antitrust compliance, you should indicate to the chair that you object. If the discussion continues, you should remove yourself from the situation after requesting that written record of your objection be made.