Associations and Anti-Trust Perils

The FTC's action against a major trade association serves as a reminder of the perils of exchanges of information among members of associations. The FTC announced a consent order regarding the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) due to discussions of pricing policies that took place at NAMM meetings. In its announcement, the FTC noticed that associations "may find it appropriate to update and bolster their antitrust compliance practices and, in particular, ensure that any meetings at which sensitive discussions are discussed are properly planned and monitored." Since the FTC and the Justice Department have issued detailed guidelines about the conducting of salary surveys because of the potential for exchange of competitive information, the FTC's concerns about the exchange of pricing information at association meetings should apply equally strongly to compensation information.

The Press and Hospital CEO Compensation

In our June 30, 2009 post, we noted that key people at the IRS were suggesting that nonprofit hospital CEO compensation was too high, even though the hospitals were following the IRS's own rules for setting compensation. And we noted in our July 1 post that every year, press reports appear reviewing hospital Form 990s and suggesting that the reported hospital CEO compensation is somehow out of line for running a charity. A concise review of the press coverage issue was recently posted at Nonprofit Law Blog, and astutely sums up the recurring issues with press coverage. Once again, this points up that part of the job of the compensation committee must be preparing for and dealing with press coverage.