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the affinity credit card program is the type of unfair
competition between tax-exempt organizations and taxable
businesses that Congress intended to subject to the UBIT. We
disagree. Petitioner's activity was de minimis. USNB was
competing with other credit card issuers, but petitioner was not.
Respondent cites United States v. American Bar Endowment,
477 U.S. 105 (1986). In American Bar Endowment, the Supreme
Court found that the taxpayer's activity created the kind of
unfair competition that led to the enactment of section 512. Id.
at 114. The American Bar Endowment (ABE) raised money by
providing group insurance policies to its members. Id. at 107.
ABE bought a group policy for its members and paid a negotiated
premium to the insurance company. Id. at 107-108. If the
insurance company's cost of providing insurance to the group was
lower than the premium, the company refunded the excess. Id. at
108. The excess amounts were called dividends. Id. ABE
required all members to agree, as a condition of participating in
the group insurance program, that ABE and not the members would
keep the dividends. Id. ABE told its members that the members'
share of the dividends, less ABE's administrative costs, was a
tax-deductible contribution from the members to ABE. Id.
ABE actively administered the group insurance program. Id.
ABE's activities included choosing insurers, negotiating premium
rates with insurers, compiling lists of its members, soliciting
and collecting premiums from its members, sending premiums to the
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