Guidelines for Antitrust Compliance by Division and Committee Officers DO’s and Don’ts for Meetings and Operations
DO send the agenda for all meetings to TAPPI headquarters c/o Technical Division Administrator at least 15 days prior to the meeting DO send all minutes to TAPPI Headquarters 30 days after the meeting. DO review TAPPI Antitrust Policy and General Rules of Antitrust compliance prior to the meeting. DO stop any discussion, which appears to be leading to • A discussion of process or pricing policy • Any restraint on competition of any kind DO advise all meeting attendees to observe the General Rules of Antitrust Compliance in information conversations as well as formal TAPPI activities.
DO NOT place constraints on committee membership, other than the member’s technical capability in the area covered by the committee and the willingness of the committee member to participate actively in committee work. DO NOT undertake any committee activity involving collection of individual firm cost data or dissemination of any compilation of such data without prior approval of TAPPI legal counsel. DO NOT undertake any activity to establish a product standard or specification. TAPPI headquarters prior to publication must clear all test methods. DO NOT set a numerical limit on committee size unless membership on the committee is rotated on a regular and reasonable basis. You may set a numerical limit on the maximum number of representatives per company. Recommendations for the Selection of Speakers
TAPPI technical sessions at conferences and seminars are not designed to be sales forums; they are designed to provide a forum for the exchange of technical information. Nevertheless employees of suppliers are sometimes asked to participate as speakers or panelists because of their knowledge and experience. Participation on the program of a conference or seminar maybe viewed by suppliers as a significant competitive opportunity and the favoring of some suppliers over others can give rise to antitrust problems.
The exclusion of a supplier from a panel or program will not be considered an antitrust violation unless it constitutes and unreasonable restraint on competition. The key to “reasonableness” in this area is fair-minded decision making based upon objective criteria. In order to be fair to all suppliers and to avoid a charge of acting unreasonably to deprive any supplier of a significant competitive opportunity, TAPPI session developers should in all cases observe the following guidelines
1. No speaker should be chosen with the intent to afford their company a competitive advantage and no speaker should be excluded with the intent to deny any company a competitive opportunity.
2. Speakers should be chosen individually on the basis of objective criteria reasonably related to the educational purpose of the session such as technical knowledge, experience, professional reputation and the effectiveness as a speaker.
3. The criteria to be used in selecting speakers should be established prior to the actual selection of speakers
4. Supplier participation should be planned so as to minimize any competitive advantage, which might arise from participation in a TAPPI activity.
5. Considerations should be given by session developers to all available methods for equalizing the competitive opportunity among suppliers.