ADVANCED ISSUES IN AVOIDANCE

creditors and debtors in the industry, subject of course to applicable evidentiary rules." Gulf City Seafoods, 296 F.3d at 368 n.5 (noting that defendant could not prevail by simply offering testimony of payment terms with its own customers, but rather must show evidence of credit arrangements of other creditors and debtors in the industry). Whether "such testimony is appropriately reliable is a matter best left to the bankruptcy court." Id. The Third Circuit recently found that "testimony from employees of the parties involved in a preference payment dispute may be used to establish an industry standard, as long as the court determines that the employees are credible and have significant and relevant industry experience." In re Global Tissue L.L.C., 106 F. App'x at 103.

The following Courts accepted testimony from representatives of the defendant as sufficient evidence to prove industry standards:

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Defendant's general manager and others familiar with the knitted apparel industry and Defendant's competitors payment practices satisfied industry standard inquiry. In re Forman Enters., Inc., 293 B.R. at 860.

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Transferee can meet its burden of proof under § 547(c)(2)(C) by producing testimonial evidence of one of its employees as to the established range of practices prevailing in the newspaper industry so long as the testimony is based on firsthand knowledge. In re Bridge Info. Sys., Inc., 297 B.R. at 765.

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Defendant's representative with over twenty years experience and "personal knowledge of the payment terms and collection practices of [defendant's] approximately twenty-five competitors" was "highly credible . . . and offered the court specified knowledge" necessary to prove industry standards. In re Berger Indus., Inc., 260 B.R. at 648-49.

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Testimony of industry knowledge of credit manager with five years of experience is