Price-Fixing: Legal and Lovin' It!

Interesting headline on the front page of The Wall Street Journal: "Price-Fixing Makes Comeback After Supreme Court Ruling." Which is bad news for retailers and, you'd think, consumers. But turns out, yes, manufacturers are indeed allowed to set minimum prices for their goods after nearly 100 years of being told...

By Robert Wilonsky

August 18, 2008

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Interesting headline on the front page of The Wall Street Journal: "Price-Fixing Makes Comeback After Supreme Court Ruling." Which is bad news for retailers and, you'd think, consumers. But turns out, yes, manufacturers are indeed allowed to set minimum prices for their goods after nearly 100 years of being told that, nope, that's too much like price-fixing and so totally against the law. And, of course, the practice's comeback has deeply local ties: Last year the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Flower Mound-based Kay's Kloset couldn't deeply discount the leather goods of a company called Leegin Creative Leather Products Inc., which sued after Leegin claimed Kay's was selling its belts at low, low, low prices. Which is why I now make all my clothes. --Robert Wilonsky

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