15 1 Any action under this paragraph may be brought in the dis2 trict court of the United States for the district in which the 3 defendant is located or resides or is doing business, and such 4 court shall have jurisdiction to restrain such violation and to 5 require compliance. 6 (h)(1) If any person fails to comply with the require7 ments of this section, any other person directly affected by 8 such failure may maintain a civil action against such person 9 failing to comply with such requirements for damages and 10 appropriate equitable relief, including temporary and perma11 nent injunctive relief. If the plaintiff prevails in any action 12 under this section, the plaintiff shall be entitled to reasonable 13 attorney and expert witness fees to be paid by the defendant, 14 except that in any case in which the court determines that 15 only nominal damages are to be awarded to the plaintiff, the 16 court may, in, its discretion, determine not to direct that such 17 fees be paid by the defendant. 18 (2) Such action may be brought, without regard to the 19 amount in controversy, in the district court of the United 20 States in any judicial district in which the principal place of 21 business of such person is located or in which such person is 22 doing business. 23 (i) Subsections (a)(1), (b), (c), and (d) of this section shall 24 take effect one year after the date of the enactment of this 25 Act. 1 2 16 REGULATIONS SEC. 4. (a) The Small Business Administration shall 3 prescribe the initial regulations required by the provisions of 4 section 2 before the end of the one-hundred-and-eighty-day 5 period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act. (b)(1) The Federal Trade Commission shall prescribe by 6 7 regulation the annual date by which the information de8 scribed in section 3(e)(1) is required to be provided under 9 such section before the end of the sixty-day period beginning 10 on the date of the enactment of this Act. 11 (2) The Federal Trade Commission shall prescribe any 12 other initial regulations required by the provisions of section 13 3 before the end of the one-hundred-and-eighty-day period 14 beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act. APPENDIX B.-MATERIAL SUBMITTED BY HON. BERKLEY BEDELL EXHIBIT 1 THE SMALL BUSINESS MOTOR FUEL MARKETER PRESERVATION ACT OF 1981 The proprietor of any leased service station that is offered for sale by a refiner shall have the right of first refusal to purchase that station. SBA loan guarantees are made available for such purchases. The following procedures shall be used in offering a gas station for sale to the leaseholder. First, the refiner shall make an offer to the lessee Second. the dealer may make a counter offer. If this Effective one year after date of enactment, major integrated refiners will be prohibited from directly operating any retail gasoline outlets. (They will be permitted to continue ownership and to operate them through lessee dealers.) The refiners who are exempted from the prohibition on operating service stations generally are those classified as small or independent refiners according to the Emergency Petroleum Allocation Act. rule. Small or independent refiners would be subject to a refiner sales Each may sell through its own directly-operated outlets an amount of motor fuel equal to: 1) all motor fuel purchased from others: plus 2) all motor fuel manufactured by the refiner up to 1978 direct sales total; plus 3) 50% of the excess of motor fuel manufactured above 1978 direct sales total. continued Effective six months after date of enactment, suppliers of motor fuel will be prohibited from transferring motor fuel to other marketing units within their own companies at prices less than those charged independent wholesale purchasers of their products. Uniform and reasonable surcharges for the use of brand names and related services may be added to the price charged independent buyers. Effective one year after date of enactment, it shall be unlawful for anyone to interfere with the right of a dealer to purchase, store or sell motor fuel products obtained from anyone else. Agreements providing that a dealer shall buy product only from a particular supplier would be permitted only if they specify the dealer's right to purchase product elsewhere if it is not available from the regular supplier.. Dealers operating branded stations must provide point-of-sale notice to customers if product being sold was not obtained from the brand-name supplier. Within three months after date of enactment, refiners must provide the following information to the Federal Trade Commission: a) total amount of motor fuel sold in refiner-operated outlets during the preceding year; b) total amount of motor fuel manufactured; c) total amount of crude oil produced; and d) total amount of crude oil refined. The FTC shall establish regulations for annual reports. To the extent that the information sought is available from other agencies of the government, the Commisssion shall waive reporting requirements. Violation of this Act shall be punishable by fines of up to $50,000 per month for each service station operated after the deadline for divorcement, and up to $25,000 for each 25,000 gallons of motor fuel sold in excess of the amount permitted by the refiner sales rule. Violation of the discriminatory pricing provision is punishable by fines of up to $10,000 per violation. Responsibility for enforcement is given to the FTC. In addition, individuals may bring civil actions against anyone who fails to comply with the Act. EXHIBIT 2 Sponsors and Cosponsors of THE SMALL BUSINESS MOTOR FUEL MARKETER PRESERVATION ACT OF 1981 H.R. 1362 Eugene Atkinson Les Aspin Les AuCoin Don Bailey Michael Barnes Robert Davis Geraldine Ferrarc George Hansen Harold Hollenbeck James Howard William Hughes Eugene Johnston Robert Kastenmeier Dale Kildee Ray Kogovsek Norman Mineta Donald Mitchell Joe Moakley Robert Mollohan Mary Rose Oakar Leon Panetta Nick Joe Rahall Frederick Richmond Robert Roe Charles Rose Claudine Schneider John Seiberling Neal Smith Gerald Solomon Fernand St. Germain Arlan Stangeland Fortney Stark Samuel Stratton Al Swift Morris Udall Bruce Vento Harold Washington James Weaver Ted Weiss G. William Whitehurst Howard Wolpe Ron Wyden Leo Zeferetti John LaFalce Gary Lee Mike Lowry Matthew McHugh George Miller |