## Facts

- The American Federation of Musicians (AFM) and a local union regulated New York City “club date” engagements through union bylaws and rules.
- In the club-date system, an orchestra “leader” arranged the engagement, performed (or used a subleader), hired “sidemen,” and contracted with the purchaser of the music.
- Union rules directed at leaders included requirements to use union contract forms, comply with union regulations, and pay at least union wage scales.
- The union imposed work and market restraints, including minimum sideman quotas, restrictions on dealings with caterers, and use of union-licensed booking agents.
- The union also required leaders to charge customers at least specified minimum amounts in a “Price List Booklet,” calculated from sidemen wage scales, a leader’s fee tied to the sideman scale, and an added percentage, with additional pay rules for subleaders.
- Several leaders sued, alleging the union’s rules—including the Price List—violated §§ 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act as unlawful restraints of trade and price-fixing.
- A key dispute was whether leaders, who had some employer-like features when hiring sidemen and contracting with customers, were a “labor” group for purposes of the labor-antitrust exemption.

## Issues

1. Whether the union’s regulation of orchestra leaders created an unlawful combination with a non-labor group, removing the conduct from statutory labor exemptions and subjecting it to the Sherman Act.
2. Whether the union-mandated minimum customer charges in the Price List Booklet constituted non-exempt per se price-fixing under § 1 of the Sherman Act.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court reversed the court of appeals on the price-list issue and held the challenged conduct fell within the Norris–LaGuardia labor-dispute exemption.
- The Court treated orchestra leaders as a “labor” group because they performed the same type of work as sidemen and shared aligned economic interests.
- The union’s involvement of leaders in promulgating and enforcing the rules did not create a Sherman Act “combination or conspiracy” with a non-labor group.
- The Price List Booklet was upheld as part of protected labor regulation because it was closely connected to maintaining wage scales and working conditions in the club-date market.

## Legal Principles

- Statutory labor exemptions can shield union conduct from antitrust liability when the controversy qualifies as a “labor dispute” under Norris–LaGuardia.
- A union does not forfeit the labor exemption merely by regulating workers who have mixed roles (including some contractor/employer-like functions) if they are properly characterized as a labor group in the relevant market.
- Minimum charges to customers may fall within the labor exemption when they are functionally tied to protecting negotiated or imposed wage scales and working standards, rather than representing a separate commercial cartel with non-labor actors.
- Where the labor exemption applies, conduct cannot be condemned as a per se Sherman Act violation on a price-fixing theory.

## Conclusion

The Court held that union regulation of club-date orchestra leaders, including a minimum customer price list derived from musician wage scales and related pay rules, was part of an exempt labor dispute under Norris–LaGuardia and therefore not actionable under the Sherman Act as an unlawful conspiracy or per se price-fixing.


Am. Fed’n of Musicians v. Carroll, 391 U.S. 99 (1968)