Engrossing (law) - Forstalling

Forstalling

Blackstone says that this was a common law offence. The derivation does not come from setting up a stall in front of another but buying before the goods got to a stall in open market. Typically, forestalling referred to the practice of intercepting sellers on their way to a market, buying up their stock, then taking it to the market and marking it up, which appears to be a type of arbitrage. It could also mean the creation of partnerships or agreements under which goods would not be brought to market. Forestalling is often used and understood as a catch all clause for marketing offences.

The Domesday Book recorded that "foresteel" (i.e. forestalling, the practice of buying up goods before they reach market and then inflating the prices) was one of three forfeitures that King Edward the Confessor could carry out through England. As early as 1321 the practice of forestalling was recognised as a specific offence and was regulated in London in the early twelfth century, and in other cities and towns, including goods coming by land or seaii. However, originally the word itself was not used. In the laws of Henry I of England forestalling was the crime of assault on the highway an offence against the King's Peace. It acquired the meaning of the marketing offence through the distribution of the regulations of the Marshalsea whose officers were empowered by Edward I of England to regulate trade in the shires. In time these regulations became known as the Statute of Forestallers, though probably never passed by any formal process. The laws provided for heavy penalties against foretsalling. In practice the normal penalty was a fine, or, for repeated cases, exposure in the pillory.