Abstract. Zaharopol proved the following result: let T, S : L 1 (X, F , µ) → L 1 (X, F , µ) be two positive contractions such that T ≤ S. If S − T < 1 then S n − T n < 1 for all n ∈ N. In the present paper we generalize this result to multi-parameter contractions acting on L 1 . As an application of that result we prove a generalization of the "zero-two" law.