3408. Vertical Restraints Coercion Explained

3408. Vertical Restraints--"Coercion Explained" Instruction No 1 Request by Plaintiff Given as Proposed Refused Withdrawn Request by Defendant Given as Modified Requested by Given on Court's Motion Judge Instruction No 1 Coercion is conduct that interferes with the freedom of a reseller to sell in accordance with his or her own judgment. [It may include a threat by [name of defendant] to stop doing business with [[name of plaintiff]/a reseller] or to hold back any product or service important to [his/her/its] competition in the market.] A unilateral decision to deal or refuse to deal with a particular reseller does not constitute coercion. Coercion may be proven directly or indirectly. In deciding whether there was coercion, you may consider, among other factors, the following: (a) Whether [name of defendant] penalized or threatened to penalize [name of plaintiff] for not following [his/her/its] suggestions; (b) Whether [name of defendant] made or threatened to make an important benefit depend on [name of plaintiff] following [his/her/its] suggestions; (c) Whether [name of defendant] required [name of plaintiff] to get approval before doing something other than what [he/she/it] suggested; and (d) The relative bargaining power of [name of defendant] and [name of plaintiff]. ________________________________________________________________________________ New September 2003