Interesting note: In the Google Books Settlement case, one of the aspects the American DOJ has singled out as an issue is the ability of publishers to set not only prices but utterly control other issues (such as quality control) in the proposed settlement, and the anti-competitive effect on the market - and this is in a situation where Google *can* negotiate prices for *some* books, which is absent from the "agency model".
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fixing price related terms in wholesale agreements is per se illegal".