Seven Up

The Justice Department last week fired a broadside at Standard Oil Co. of California and the six other big oil companies operating on the West Coast.* Charging monopoly and price-fixing, the department filed an antitrust suit to force the companies to: 1) end their exclusive-dealer contracts with independent service stations; 2) divorce their producing activities from their wholesale and retail outlets; and 3) dissolve their conservation committee, which has set production quotas for California's oil industry.

Only a year ago, the trustbusters had won a precedent-setting decision over California Standard that helped pave the way for the new suit. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Standard had to end its contracts with independent dealers, under which the dealers agreed to sell only Standard products.

The companies, which had known for weeks that the suit was brewing, had blanket denials (one in the form of a television film) ready for immediate release. Their most telling point: a federal grand jury had investigated their records without returning an indictment.

*General Petroleum Corp., Richfield Oil Corp., Shell Oil Co., Inc., The Texas Co., Tide Water Associated Oil Co., Union Oil Co.

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