FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                          AT
TUESDAY, JULY 18, 1995                             (202) 616-2771
                                               TDD (202) 514-1888




    JUSTICE DEPARTMENT ALLOWS INFORMATION EXCHANGE IN ORDER TO
   REDUCE MAIL-IN-OFFER REBATE FRAUD; WILL BENEFIT CONSUMERS
                                
 
     WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Department of Justice has cleared
the way for companies that are victimized by an estimated half
-billion dollars a year in rebate coupon fraud to track down the
criminals that are defrauding them.
     The Department said that the Promotion Marketing Association
of America's proposal to receive, aggregate and distribute
information relating to rebate fraud will have procompetitive
effects.  The Department said that to the extent that it reduces
the costs to manufacturers of stolen or counterfeit rebate
certificates, the proposal may reduce prices and expand output to
the benefit of consumers.
     PMAA, after consulting with the U.S. Postal Service, is
proposing to establish a centralized data base, to which
participating firms could report evidence of suspected fraud. 
Participating firms would identify potential fraudulent claims
and key those records into an electronic file and transmit them
to the PMAA operated Central File System.  The data base manager
would collect the evidence and report its findings to law
enforcement officials, and in aggregated form to its members.
     PMAA is a New York based association of consumer product and
service manufacturers, promotion agencies and other firms active
in the promotion marketing industry.  Manufacturers of consumer
products on occasion offer rebates to customers who mail in
coupons or other proof of purchase.  Rebate offers typically are
expressly conditioned to require that the person requesting the
rebate have actually purchased the product being promoted.  
     The Department said that in recent years there has been
wide-spread fraud in claiming rebate entitlement.  Many false,
counterfeit, stolen or purchased "proofs of purchase" have been
submitted.  Some persons utilize cash registers or computers to
produce phony sales receipts in large quantities.  
     Bingaman stated that, "The information exchanged should not
engender any anticompetitive effect.  The limited nature of the
proposed cooperation--no discussion of pricing or other sales
related conduct and no cooperative utilization of the aggregated
information--should preclude any risk of concerted pricing or
collective refusals to deal."
     The Department's position was stated in a business review
letter to counsel for the PMAA from Anne K. Bingaman, Assistant
Attorney General in charge of the Antitrust Division.  
     Under the Department's business review procedure, an
organization may submit a proposed action to the Antitrust
Division and receive a statement as to whether the Division will
challenge the action as a violation of the antitrust laws.
     A file containing the business review request and the
Department's response will be made available in the Legal
Procedure Unit of the Antitrust Division, Room 3235, Department
of Justice, Washington, D.C. 20530.  After a 30-day waiting
period, the documents supporting the business review request will
be added to the file.
                               ###
95-399