Battle Over Minimum Pricing Heating Up

The Wall Street Journal is covering developments in the gathering battle between manufacturers and retailers / discounters, especially online ones, over minimum prices. Earlier this year the Supreme Court upheld the right of manufacturers to enforce price floors for their products. Since then, manufacturers have increasingly been employing service companies like NetEnforcers to snitch on discounters who offer goods below "minimum advertised prices" (or MAPs), and to send DMCA takedown notices to the likes of eBay and Craigslist for below-minimum offers. Separately, the Journal reports that a coalition of discounters and retailers is using eBay as a stalking-horse in a campaign to get consumers, and then politicians, fired up enough to pass legislation outlawing MAPs.

Comments

Re:MAP vs Price Fixing

[ratboy666]

I sell "dual core intel computer with 2gb" for $1000 (or even more). Now, the customer *could* go to tigerdirect.ca and buy the "same" system for a few hundred dollars. I make my client VERY aware of that option. Really, I don't want any buyers remorse or anxiety over purchasing a system from me.

But... on-site setup, customized media software, lifetime labor, quality parts, little to no noise, and a nice pvr case.

Let's see tigerdirect.ca compete with that.

If *all* you are doing is selling the speakers -- I don't have much sympathy. Take your $50 dollar profit, if that's all you can get. Buy more speakers, and go "internet" as well.

MAP *does* gouge the consumer; if only to keep your business model afloat.

Personally, I think that MAP is designed to protect "reputation". Without the need for anyone to apply any extra elbow grease.