In the early 1980s the DDC Board of Directors exercised their authority to expel a member from the club for making public statements that tended to cast the industry in a negative light. They expelled Martin Rapaport for saying to the press, "diamonds, ethics, Feh! If the devil himself showed up they would sell to him." The real reason the club wanted to expel Rapaport, however, was that they were opposed to his price list. See note 4 supra. They also brought an antitrust suit against him for price-fixing and asked a Jewish court to issue an injunction barring him from any further participation in the Jewish community until he ceased publishing the list. The attention generated by the suit led the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to initiate an investigation to determine if the club itself was in restraint of trade. Although the FTC instituted a full-scale investigation, it was later dropped. Rapaport challenged his expulsion in court but ultimately settled with the club on undisclosed terms and was readmitted as a member. Today Rapaport has a strong base of support at the club: he is a member of the board of arbitrators, and his price list is an accepted fixture in the international diamond trade. Rapaport was not expelled for breaching contracts or failing to meet his commercial obligations; consequently the club was unable to use its power to exclude him from the industry. The norms of the diamond industry only work when they capture information that the market values.

Lisa Bernestein, Opting out of the Legal Sys…, loc. 174