The following activities tend to illustrate a common business interest:
-
Promoting higher business standards and better business methods and encouraging uniformity and cooperation by a retail merchants association,
-
Educating the public in the use of credit,
-
Establishing uniform casualty rates and compiling statistical information by an insurance rating bureau operated by casualty insurance companies under state authority,
-
Establishing and maintaining the integrity of a local commercial market,
-
Operating a trade publication primarily to benefit an entire industry,
-
Encouraging the use of goods and services of an entire industry (such as a lawyer referral service whose main purpose is to introduce individuals to the use of the legal profession in the hope that they will enter into lawyer-client relationships on a paying basis), and
-
Attempting to influence legislation germane to the common business interests of an organization's members.
On the other hand, a hobby is not a business; thus, an organization that promotes the common interests of hobbyists does not qualify for exemption as a business league.
Return to Life Cycle of a Business League (Trade Association)