Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
The term can have other meanings. For example, in the UK, a manufacturer is not allowed to dictate what price a retailer charges for its products. It can set a "recommended" retail price, but any retailer is free to discount that price if they wish to do so. That would be an example of "price fixing" by the manufacturer, and may be the context that people have in mind here.
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Harry,
I think you will appreciate this law passed recently in Maryland wrt to MAP and MPA's agreements, it is especially interesting because the law specifically mentions the sale of items to residents of Maryland over the internet.
WSJ Article (non-subscriber link, finally found it):
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124087840110661643.html
http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2009/0...-price-fixing/
http://spectator.org/archives/2009/10/07/price-fixing {the 'against' POV but gotta show both sides....}
From the above:
Quote:
On October 1, it became illegal in Maryland for manufacturers to set the minimum prices at which retailers may sell their products. Sen. Herb Kohl (D-WI) has introduced federal legislation that would do the same thing nationwide.
Legislators allege that when manufacturers prohibit their products from being sold below a certain price, they are hurting consumers. Discounters can't discount as much as they would like. Consumers have to pay more for the same products. Sen. Kohl's bill is subtly named the Pricing Consumer Protection Act.
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We still have not seen the end result this sort of law will have but as there are several states working in the same direction, the so-called agency-model for physical goods might very well be gone in short order...and I am willing to bet there is a building full of lawyers, on Amazon's payroll, working on how to apply this to the issue.
It will be interesting to follow once both sides have their ducks-in-a-row...