Antitrust Compliance Statement

It is customary that all Producer representatives to each Conference adhere to Antitrust Compliance requirements, and legal counsel is solicited and present at each Conference.

STATEMENT OF COMPLIANCE WITH ANTITRUST PRINCIPLES

  1. The Conference

    The Pacific Coast Conference on Asphalt Specifications (the "Conference") is an association composed primarily of producers of paving asphalt and of federal, state and local government agencies that are users of paving asphalt products in the Pacific Coast United States. Others who participate in the Conference include asphalt and paving consultants and university professors who conduct industry- or government-sponsored research on paving asphalt performance.

    The Conference meets periodically, usually on a biennial basis but currently on an annual basis. Before each Conference, there is a meeting of the producer representatives (with at least one user representative present) to advise on the agenda for the Conference. A number of committees of the Conference, both standing and ad hoe, have been created; presently, these include the Paving Asphalt Committee, the Emulsion Committee, the Recycling Committee and the Standing Committee.

    The purposes of the Conference are (1) to exchange information among all producers and users of paving asphalt concerning performance of asphalts meeting various specifications under the different environmental and usage conditions experienced in the Pacific Coast States, and (2) to develop and recommend specifications for paving asphalts for adoption by users, in an effort to enhance the producers' ability to supply such asphalts and to provide users with increased and competitive sources of supply of high quality products.

    To these ends, individual members and committees investigate asphalt specifications and performance and present the results of their studies to the Conference. These presentations report on users' experience and present data concerning performance of various asphalt specifications and mixes, and present theories developed by users or producers with respect Io potential improvements in the specifications. Other conferees provide input in response to these presentations. If it is believed that a tentative or permanent change in or addition to current specifications is desirable, a revised or new specification is proposed to the user agencies.

  2. Antitrust Guidelines

    The federal and state antitrust laws promote free and open competition as the most efficient means of allocating resources and fostering improvements in goods and services. The purposes of the Conference are consistent with, and facilitate, competition and efficiency in the design, manufacture and use of paving asphalts and paving products. By gathering and analyzing technical data and experience with various types of asphalt specifications, the Conference helps to enhance performance of pavements throughout the Pacific Coast States. By recommending a uniform set of specifications to be adopted by individual user agencies, the Conference endeavors to allow more producers to compete for agency sales and to increase the users' sources of supply. A uniform set of specifications means that the individual producer need only produce and store a manageable number of differing asphalts, while being able to compete for the largest proportion of sales. By resolution at each of the last several Conferences, the government agencies that are members have confirmed their conviction that these activities are "in the public interest."

    The Conference has long required that at each of the Conference sessions and pre-conference agenda meetings, an attorney be present to advise on the antitrust laws and to discuss the guidelines adopted by the Conference to assure compliance with those laws. The Conference's Antitrust Guidelines are restated below.

    1. Only the user agencies, the consumers of the product, may vote on whether the recommended specifications are to be adopted or modified. The producing companies, consultants and university investigators shall abstain from such votes, although they may and should participate in the deliberations.
    2. The specifications shall be formulated in terms of product performance and end product physical characteristics, rather than in terms of the product ingredients (e.g., required sources of crude or proprietary refining processes).
    3. The specifications shall only be recommendations that any user may elect not to require and that any producer may elect not to supply.
    4. Representatives of both users and producers shall be present at each of the meetings of the Conference and of its committees or subcommittees that in any way relate to development, adoption or modification of a recommended specification.
    5. All asphalt producers and users shall be eligible to become members of the Conference, to attend the Conference, and to obtain results of the Conference's recommended specifications, decisions and research programs, provided they pay reasonable fees and perform any applicable membership duties established by the Conference.
    6. Legal counsel shall be present at the Conference sessions and at the pre- conference agenda meeting of the producer representatives.
    7. An agenda shall be established for each Conference session, the producer representatives' pre-conference agenda meetings and meetings of all committees and subcommittees. These agendas shall be followed in the conduct of all such meetings. Detailed minutes of the results of actions taken at each meeting shall be prepared, approved by the attendees, and kept on file with the Conference secretary for no less than four years.
    8. Each of the user agencies shall cast a single vote on adoption or modification of specifications; the voting shall not be based on the number of representatives of a particular user agency attending the meeting.
    9. In matters other than the adoption or modification of a specification, each producer shall be given a single vote such that the outcome does not depend on the producer's number of representatives or other factors within an individual producer's control.
    10. Participants shall not engage in any discussions that concern prices, price levels, markups, discounts, extension of credit or other terms of sale, current cost data, production levels, bidding, sales to specific customers, price advertising or plans concerning the marketing of paving asphalts. Such discussions between participants are inappropriate at any time either during or outside of the time in which the Conference or committee is in session.