The majority in this case found that the retail fee in this case breached section 92 in being protectionist and discriminatory. The judges viewed the retail fee in isolation, and discounted the existence of the fee on wholesalers. It was possible that other states could impose a retail fee of their own; if the interstate fee was higher, this would only serve to compound the problem, while if it were lower, this additional fee would protect Victorian wholesalers from more competitive interstate wholesalers. Even if this tax were imposed in the pursuit of economic equalisation, the most it would do is to "provide some local justification for the imposition of a protectionist tax in respect of interstate goods at the later retail stage of distribution" (per majority).