SCOTUS Case May End Sale Prices

An anonymous reader writes "If you own a mom & pop store and can't get rid of some of your inventory, you can always clear out some shelf space by holding a sale. If the Supreme Court sides with business interests in a case they heard today, however, such sales may no longer be possible. Since 1911 it has been illegal for manufacturers to force retailers into setting a price floor for products — individual retailers get to decide how much they sell products for. But today the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case seeking to overturn this longstanding rule. Should the Court do so, it would drive up consumer prices across the board. This case is particularly salient in the era of Internet shopping: consumers are now easily able to shop around to multiple retailers to find the best price. The Court could wipe out this advantage." From the article: "Should the Court abandon the... rule against minimum resale price maintenance... it would send a signal that the Roberts Court will continue to narrow the application of the antitrust laws and that the Court may disregard settled precedent and Congressional will in other areas of the law as well."

Comments

Re:This impacts botique items the most

[Grishnakh]

As it is, it's very difficult to find MS-Windows below MSRP. Under these rules, it would be impossible.

You've never heard of BitTorrent, have you?

Benefit

[Anonymous Coward]

It it'll get my wife to stop impulse-buying stupid shit, then I'm all for it!

Re:Questionable

[Anonymous Coward]

Justice Roberts, is that you?

Announcing...

[kent_eh]

Announcing the grand opening of www.everythingalwaysonsale.ca

That's right!
Just because your government won't let you shop around for the best deal, doesn't mean that you can't save money.
Stop buying from those overpriced American stores, and get started cross-border shopping!

Our friendly agents are standing by to serve you, eh.

Re:adam smith is rolling in his grave

[yoder]

"these are exactly the types of questions that capitalism can't solve by itself."

User956, you know of course that you are going straight to hell for that kind of thinking. Blasphemer!

Re:There are other ways.

[kent_eh]

You'd see a vastly improved rebate industry ramp up,

I'm sorry, but it's never appropriate to use "rebate" and "improved" together in the same sentence.

Re:adam smith is rolling in his grave

[good soldier svejk]

"People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the publick, or in some contrivance to raise prices." - Adam Smith (Wealth of Nations, p 145)