Diamond dealers consistently maintain that transactions between two club members, between two nonmembers, and between a member and a nonmember are conducted in exactly the same way. If the availability of the DDC's arbitration system and enforcement mechanisms were central to parties' ex ante decision making, the terms of the transaction (either substantive or price) should be different when at least one party is a nonmember. For example, a member seller who would sell a stone to another member on thirty-day terms would be expected to charge a nonmember a higher price (or perhaps demand cash on the spot) to compensate for the risk of nonpayment and the unavailability of arbitration. Dealers insist, however, that no such differences exist and that they decide who to deal with purely on the basis of the other party's reputation.

Lisa Bernestein, Opting out of the Legal Sys…, loc. 250