United States v. San Francisco Electrical Contractors Ass'n

The indictment, returned on March 2, 1940, charges, in substance, that certain unions combined with their employers to fix prices on electrical equipment moving in interstate commerce, to exclude such equipment from the San Francisco market and to increase the cost of electrical equipment moving in interstate commerce in that market in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, 15 U.S.C.A. § 1 . More particularly, it is averred that the defendants have been engaged continuously from January 3, 1938, to the date of the indictment “in an unlawful combination and conspiracy (a) arbitrarily, unreasonably, and unlawfully to increase, regulate, fix, dictate, and control the bids which all electrical contractors should submit to general contractors for the installation, alteration, and repair of electrical systems for the purpose of establishing arbitrary, collusive, and non-compctitive bids, and (b) arbitrarily, unreasonably, and unlawfully to eliminate electrical contractors who refuse to participate in said bid-control scheme as prospective purchasers of electrical equipment shipped in interstate commerce into the San Francisco Bay Area; and (c) arbitrarily, unreasonably,…