37 JACKSON, J., dissenting in part. This leaves for consideration the objection to paragraph (c) of the order which reads: "By selling such products to any retailer at prices lower than prices charged wholesalers whose customers compete with such retailer." The only criticism here urged to (c) is that it bars respondent from selling to a retailer at a price lower than that charged a wholesaler whose customers compete with the retailer. Section 2 (a) of the Act specifically authorizes the Commission to bar discriminatory prices which tend to lessen or injure competition with "any person who either grants or knowingly receives the benefit of such discrimination, or with customers of either of them." This provision. plainly supports paragraph (c) of the order. We sustain the Commission's order with the exception of the provisos in paragraphs (a) and (b) previously set out. Since the qualifying clauses constitute an important limitation to the provisos, we think the Commission should have an opportunity to reconsider the entire provisos in light of our rejection of the qualifying clauses, and to refashion these provisos as may be deemed necessary. This the Commission may do upon the present evidence and findings or it may hear other evidence and make other findings on this phase of the case, should it conclude to do so. See Federal Trade Comm'n v. Royal Milling Co., 288 U. S. 212, 218. The judgment of the Circuit Court of Appeals is reversed and the proceedings are remanded to that court to be disposed of in conformity with this opinion. Reversed. MR. JUSTICE JACKSON, with whom MR. JUSTICE FRANKFURTER joins, dissenting in part. While I agree with much of the Court's opinion, I cannot accept its most significant feature, which is a new interpretation of the Robinson-Patman Act that will JACKSON, J., dissenting in part. 334 U.S. sanction prohibition of any discounts if "there is a reasonable possibility that they 'may' have" the effect to wit: to lessen, injure, destroy or prevent competition. [Emphasis supplied.] I think the law as written by the Congress and as always interpreted by this Court requires that the record show a reasonable probability of that effect. The difference, as every lawyer knows, is not unimportant and in many cases would be decisive. The law rarely authorizes judgments on proof of mere possibilities. After careful consideration this Court has, at least three times and as late as 1945, refused to interpret these laws as doing so. In 1922, in Standard Fashion Co. v. Magrane-Houston Co., 258 U. S. 346, at 356, a unanimous Court, construing like language in § 3 of the Clayton Act, said: "But we do not think that the purpose in using the word 'may' was to prohibit the mere possibility of the consequences described. It was intended to prevent such agreements as would under the circumstances disclosed probably lessen competition, or create an actual tendency to monopoly." In 1930, in International Shoe Company v. Federal Trade Commission, 280 U. S. 291, the Court said (at p. 298) with respect to identical language in § 7 of the Clayton Act: ". . . . . . the act deals only with such acquisitions as probably will result in lessening competition. to a substantial degree, Standard Fashion Co. v. MagraneHouston Co., 258 U. S. 346, 357 And Mr. Justice Stone wrote for the dissenting justices (280 U. S. 306): "Nor am I able to say that the McElwain Company was then in such financial straits as to preclude the reasonable inference by the Commission that its business. would probably continue to compete with that of petitioner. See Standard Fashion Co. v. Magrane-Houston Co., 258 U. S. 346, 356-357." With these interpretations on our books the RobinsonPatman Act was passed. 37 JACKSON, J., dissenting in part. When the latter Act came before this Court in 1945, this same question was carefully considered and Chief Justice Stone, with the concurrence of all but two members of the Court and with no disagreement noted on this point, wrote: "It is to be observed that § 2 (a) does not require a finding that the discriminations in price have in fact had an adverse effect on competition. The statute is designed to reach such discriminations 'in their incipiency,' before the harm to competition is effected. It is enough that they 'may' have the prescribed effect. Cf. Standard Fashion Co. v. Magrane-Houston Co., 258 U. S. 346, 356-357. But as was held in the Standard Fashion case, supra, with respect to the like provisions of § 3 of the Clayton Act, prohibiting tying clause agreements, the effect of which 'may be to substantially lessen competition,' the use of the word 'may' was not to prohibit discriminations having 'the mere possibility' of those consequences, but to reach those which would probably have the defined effect on competition." Corn Products Company v. Federal Trade Commission, 324 U. S. 726, 738. It is true that later (324 U. S. at 742) the opinion uses the language as to possibility of injury now quoted in part by the Court as the holding of that case. But the phrase appears in such form and context and is so irreconcilable with the earlier careful and complete state 1 The full text of the later reference, quoted in part by the Court, is: "As we have said, the statute does not require that the discriminations must in fact have harmed competition, but only that there is a reasonable possibility that they 'may' have such an effect. We think that it was permissible for the Commission to infer that these discriminatory allowances were a substantial threat to competition." It seems obvious that the Court's "as we have said" refers to the earlier statement that the test is "probability" which is quoted in full above, particularly in the absence of any other citation or reference. 792588 O -48- 9 JACKSON, J., dissenting in part. 334 U.S. ment, set out above, that the inconsistency must appear to a fair reader as one of those inadvertencies into which the most careful judges sometimes fall. It is the only authority for making a thrice-rejected rule of interpretation a prevailing one. I know of no other instance in which this Court has ever held that administrative orders applying drastic regulation of business practices may hang on so slender a thread of inference. The Court uses overtones of hostility to all quantity discounts, which I do not find in the Act, but they are translated into a rule which is fatal to any discount the Commission sees fit to attack. To say it is the law that the Commission may strike down any discount "upon the 'reasonable possibility' that different prices for like goods to competing purchasers may" substantially injure competition, coupled with the almost absolute subservience of judicial judgment to administrative experience, cf. Securities & Exchange Commission v. Chenery Corp., 332 U. S. 194, means that judicial review is a word of promise to the ear to be broken to the hope. The law of this case, in a nutshell, is that no quantity discount is valid if the Commission chooses to say it is not. That is not the law which Congress enacted and which this Court has uniformly stated until today. The Robinson-Patman Act itself, insofar as it relates to quantity discounts, seems to me, on its face and in light of its history, to strive for two results, both of which should be kept in mind when interpreting it. On the one hand, it recognizes that the quantity discount may be utilized arbitrarily and without justification in savings effected by quantity sales, to give a discriminatory advantage to large buyers over small ones. This evil it would prohibit. On the other hand, it recognizes that a business practice so old and general is not without some basis in reason, that much that we call our standard of living is due to the wide availability of low-priced goods, 37 JACKSON, J., dissenting in part. made possible by mass production and quantity distribution, and hence that whatever economies result from quantity transactions may, and indeed should, be passed down the line to the consumer. I think the Court's disposition of this case pretty much sanctions an obliteration of the difference between discounts which the Act would foster and those it would condemn. It will illustrate my point to discuss only two of the discounts involved-two which the Commission and the Court lump together and treat exactly alike, but which to me require under the facts of this case quite different inferences as to their effect on competition. In addition to a general ten-cent per case carload lot discount, there is what we may call a quota discount, by which customers who purchase 5,000 or more cases in a twelve-month period get a further rebate of 10 cents per case, while those who purchase 50,000 or more cases in such periods get an additional 5 cents per case. The application of this schedule to distribution of the table salt involved is substantially illustrated by one of the Company's exhibits, from which we find: It thus appears that out of approximately 4,000 customers only 54 receive either of these two quota discounts in practice, and the larger one is available to only four or five major chain store organizations. The quota discounts allowed a customer are not related to any apparent difference in handling costs but are based solely on the volume of his purchases, which in turn depends largely on the volume of his sales, and these in turn are surely |