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“Manufacturers will have greater leeway to set minimum prices at the retail level without violating antitrust laws under a Thursday Supreme Court ruling that could hurt consumers and small merchants.”
Marketing Pilgrim’s Greg Howlett says that the “Supreme Court ruling allowing manufacturers to set minimum retail prices is a very big deal, and has huge ramifications for many internet retail businesses.”
He adds that, “there is a breed of internet retailers that may be in trouble – specifically, the ones that compete solely on price and have no other differentiation factors”. Ultimately, I believe, this will be good news for small businesses and marketers who simply do not have the volume to strip margins to the bone and play the price-war game that the big corporations do.
How this affects the kind of online business you are likely to conduct, remains to be seen, but one of the most obvious examples that springs to mind is that of ebooks and other digital products with Resale Rights. Previously, if they had a minimum suggested retail price, that was either illegal or unenforceable.
And, that has created a situation where those who virtually gave them away (legally) killed the market for anyone selling at the proper price.
After this ruling, those prices may be enforceable and those who discount beyond the price set by the product’s creator could be in trouble.
High Court Eases Ban on Minimum Prices Via: Marketing Pilgrim
Written by Pamela Heywood - Visit Website | Leave a tip | Buy me something
