IWETHEY v. 0.3.0 | TODO
1,095 registered users | 0 active users | 0 LpH | Statistics
Login | Create New User
IWETHEY Banner

Welcome to IWETHEY!

New It's being reported as lifting a ban on retail price fixing.
E.g. [link|http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/29/washington/29bizcourt.html?_r=1&oref=slogin|NY Times: Century-Old Ban Lifted on Minimum Retail Pricing].

The 55 page .pdf of the decision is [link|http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/06pdf/06-480.pdf|here]:

Given its policy of refusing to sell to retailers that discount its goods below suggested prices, petitioner (Leegin) stopped selling to respon-dent\ufffds (PSKS) store. PSKS filed suit, alleging, inter alia, that Leeginviolated the antitrust laws by entering into vertical agreements withits retailers to set minimum resale prices. [...]


In Breyer's dissent he writes (sorry about the formatting):

I can find no change in circumstances in the past several decades that helps the majority\ufffds position. In fact, there has been one important change that argues strongly to the contrary. In 1975, Congress repealed the McGuire and Miller-Tydings Acts. See Consumer Goods Pricing Act of 1975, 89 Stat. 801. And it thereby consciously extended Dr. Miles\ufffd per se rule. Indeed, at that time the Department of Justice and the FTC, then urging application ofthe per se rule, discussed virtually every argument pre-sented now to this Court as well as others not here pre-sented. And they explained to Congress why Congresss hould reject them. See Hearings on S. 408, at 176\ufffd177 (statement of Thomas E. Kauper, Assistant Attorney General, Antitrust Division); id., at 170\ufffd172 (testimony of Lewis A. Engman, Chairman of the FTC); Hearings on H. R. 2384, at 113\ufffd114 (testimony of Keith I. Clearwaters, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Antitrust Division). Congress fully understood, and consequently intended, that the result of its repeal of McGuire and Miller-Tydings would be to make minimum resale price maintenance per se unlawful. See, e.g., S. Rep. No. 94\ufffd466, pp. 1\ufffd3 (1975) (\ufffdWithout [the exemptions authorized by the Miller-Tydings and McGuire Acts,] the agreements they authorize would violate the antitrust laws. . . . [R]epeal of the fair trade laws generally will prohibit manufacturers from enforcing resale prices\ufffd). See also Sylvania, supra, at 51, n. 18 (\ufffdCongress recently has expressed its approval of a per se analysis of vertical price restrictions by repealing those provisions of the Miller-Tydings and McGuire Actsallowing fair-trade pricing at the option of the individual States\ufffd).

Congress did not prohibit this Court from reconsidering the per se rule. But enacting major legislation premised upon the existence of that rule constitutes importantpublic reliance upon that rule. And doing so aware of the relevant arguments constitutes even stronger reliance upon the Court\ufffds keeping the rule, at least in the absence of some significant change in respect to those arguments.

[...]

The only safe predictions to make about today\ufffds decision are that it will likely raise the price of goods at retail and that it will create considerable legal turbulence as lower courts seek to develop workable principles. I do not be-lieve that the majority has shown new or changed condi-tions sufficient to warrant overruling a decision of suchlong standing. All ordinary stare decisis considerations indicate the contrary. For these reasons, with respect, I dissent.


FWIW.

Cheers,
Scott.
New What it is
is a rule that forbids a manufacturer from telling a retailer the lowest price it can charge for that manufacturers product.

Where you see this, every day, is with items such as Apple Computers, video games and consoles, etc. Essentially, mfrs who wanted to operate like this and could build the channel had already worked around this rule. It allows specialty operators to do the same within the existing retail infrastructure.

I don't share the same concerns as the minority opinion that this guarantees higher prices. It simply adds one more line item to the negotiations between manufacturer and retailer.

What it does from a legal standpoint is actually put the cases closer to the actual problem by pushing them further down the court structure. I expect that we will probably see an uptick in the number of cases actually brought forward...which may indeed have the exact opposite effect feared by the dissenting opinions.
Too much of today's music is fashionable crap dressed as artistry.Adrian Belew
     Supreme Court approves price fixing. - (a6l6e6x) - (14)
         Riddle me this. - (Another Scott) - (1)
             Co-sponsored advertising. - (inthane-chan)
         No it isn't. - (bepatient) - (10)
             Well there is this problem for a retailer... - (a6l6e6x) - (1)
                 For that there are always the vendor hated . . . - (Andrew Grygus)
             Shock news: BeeP with big biz against consumers, film at 11. - (CRConrad) - (7)
                 This is a business to business decision - (bepatient) - (6)
                     It's being reported as lifting a ban on retail price fixing. - (Another Scott) - (1)
                         What it is - (bepatient)
                     It is sure to effect consumer prices - (JayMehaffey) - (3)
                         Re: It is sure to effect consumer prices - (bepatient) - (2)
                             Re: It is sure to effect consumer prices - (JayMehaffey) - (1)
                                 I think you overestimate which side has the leverage -NT - (bepatient)
         kinda like the IBM authorised dealership program back in the - (boxley)

Follow the gourd!
89 ms