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Kali, we seem to disagree again.
It does matter who sets the price. Especially when the purpose is to raise prices. If a publishing house wants to stop selling through retailers and sell direct then they can set the prices. If they want to set up 5 different websites and sell the books at the same price they can. If they want to sell through a retail chain and set the target price they can. If they want to sell through a retail chain and then tell them they can't change the price then it's a problem. If they want to sell through a retail chain and then tell them they can't change the price but it's OK because we'll call them "agents" it's still a problem.
If General Mills is concerned that Walmart is "devaluing" the price of tasty toasted oats and decide to tell all the grocery stores that they can no longer change the price of Cheerios I would have the same problem with it. If all the companies that sold products through the grocery stores did the same thing and suddenly people's weekly grocery bill went up to 2 to 3 times you bet the government will recognize it as illegal.
Paper prices are relevant to the majority of the consumers. As long as there are paper book editions that people can baseline against it will continue to be relevant. Especially when the delivery to market is so obviously cheaper.
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