Business Law 16th Edition by Jane Mallor,James Barnes ,Arlen Langvardt,Jamie Darin Prenkert,Martin McCrory

تمرين 12

MasterCard International, Inc., issues credit cards through many thousands of banks and other financial institutions. In 1997, MasterCard began airing TV commercials that came to be known as the "priceless advertisements." The ads included a sequence of names and pictures of goods and services purchased by persons using their credit cards. Voiceovers and visual displays conveyed to the viewer the prices of those items. Each advertisement concluded with mention of a priceless intangible that cannot be purchased (e.g., "a day where all you have to do is breathe"). The reference to the priceless intangible would then be followed by this statement: "Priceless. There are some things money can't buy. For everything else, there's MasterCard." In 2000, it came to MasterCard's attention that Ralph Nader's presidential campaign committee was promoting Nader's third-party campaign through use of a TV advertisement that bore similarities to MasterCard's commercials. Nader's political ad listed this series of items and their supposed prices: "Grilled tenderloin for fund-raiser: $1,000 a plate. Campaign ads filled with half-truths: $10 million. Promises to special interest groups: Over $100 billion." The Nader ad concluded this way: "Finding out the truth: priceless. There are some things that money can't buy." When Nader's campaign organization declined MasterCard's demand that it cease running the ad, MasterCard sued Nader and the campaign organization. On what basis or bases did MasterCard sue? What arguments did the defendants make in an effort to avoid liability? How did the case turn out?