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21 Iowa L. Rev. 175 (1935-1936)
Unfair Competition

handle is hein.journals/ilr21 and id is 193 raw text is: Iowa Law Review VOLUME XXI JANUARY, 1936 Number 2 UNFAIR COMPETITIONc IMTON HANDLERt I THERE is probably no term in law or economics which is more difficult to define than unfair competition. The phrase is obviously more of an epithet than a word of art. Its legal usage embodies a conclusion rather than the means of determining the legality of business behavior. Definition by illustration merely exhibits a multiplicity of usage rather than any identity of meaning. Temporal and personal factors are also significant. What was fair yesterday may be unfair today. What is deemed unfair by one group of business men may be regarded as eminently proper by another. What is offensive to a commission may be palatable to the courts. There are other variables. Practices that are economically justifiable in one industry may be reprehensible in others. What is harmless to competitors may be harmful to consumers and vice versa. Business men, economists, courts, legislatures, and adminis- trative agencies have arduously striven to chart the boundaries of this unruly concept, to give it some definite content without de- stroying the elasticity which is its chief virtue. We shall examine in this paper these varied attempts to establish and enforce a plane of competition and we shall seek to discover what, if any, are the common ideas that underlie such efforts. * This paper is based in part upon a chapter, in the preparation of which, the writer collaborated with Dr. Leverett S. Lyon of the Brookings Institute, and which is to be included in a forthcoming book by Dr. Lyon. I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to Dr. Lyon for his generous permission to base my treatment on this study and for the many stimulating ideas I have acquired from him. t Ansociate Professor of Law, Columbia University School of Law.

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