794.110—Activities excluded from the enterprise by the statute.
The circumstances under which certain activities will be excluded from the “enterprise” referred to in the Act are made clear by the definition quoted in § 794.106. The definition distinguishes between the related activities performed through unified operation and common control for a common business purpose by the participants in the enterprise, and activities which are related to these activities but are performed for the enterprise by a bona fide independent contractor (for example, an independent accounting or auditing firm). The latter activities are expressly excluded from the “enterprise” as defined. In addition, the definition contains a proviso detailing certain circumstances under which a retail or service establishment under independent ownership will not lose its status as a separate and distinct enterprise by reason of certain franchise and other arrangements which it may enter into with others. This proviso, the effect of which is more fully explained in parts 776 and 779 of this chapter, may be important to wholesale or bulk distributors of petroleum products in determining whether the effect of particular arrangements which they may make with retailers of their products will be to include activities of the latter with their own activities in the same enterprise for purposes of the Act.