Legal and Anti-Trust Information
A credit professional must stay vigilant to compliance and anti-trust concerns during the course of their everyday work. Allow NACM Commercial Services to help be your guide in anti-trust education.
Antitrust
For all NACM Commercial Services trade groups, strict compliance with the letter and spirit of the antitrust and other laws is an absolute requirement. Industry group members must avoid conduct that could appear to constitute a violation of the law.
Any discussion with respect to accounts shall be with reference to past-and-completed transactions only, and shall be held in strict confidence for the purpose of making individual decisions in the extension of credit.
Group members shall not participate in or remain present at any discussion among group members/competitors at an association meeting or other gathering of credit executives or group participants, concerning:
Prices or factors determinative of prices
Costs
Profit levels
Credit terms
Allocation of territories among competitors
Allocation of customers among competitors
Refusal to deal with customers or suppliers
Limitation of production
Antidefamation
Defamatory statements must be carefully avoided; they may subject all group members to major damage suits by persons who consider themselves to have been defamed.
Members must particularly avoid any statements declaring persons to be dishonest, fraudulent, or immoral. Such statements might be considered defamatory and should not be used unless the member making the statement can prove from clear evidence that the statement is true.
NACM Confidentiality
The information exchanged at these meetings is confidential in nature, and under no circumstances should such information be divulged to anyone outside of the credit department.
