The movement would achieve a substantial victory in 1975, as Congress invalidated so-called fair-trade laws that had allowed manufacturers to set the prices for their finished goods. These laws—in force in many states—had been a fixture of the New Deal. They had been crafted to protect manufacturers and local distributors against predatory forms of discounting by national chains that dropped prices below profitability to destroy competitors and seize the marketplace. In signing the repeal of fair-trade laws in December 1975, President Gerald Ford endorsed the logic of the Chicago school:
