Think MAP policies are bad? We're really screwed now.

[shreddermon]

If you thought minimum advertised price (MAP) policies were bad, you can expect many guitar manufacturers to soon try implementing minimum selling price policies. The Supreme Court just f**ked us all.

http://money.cnn.com/2007/06/28/news/economy/bc.antitrust.court.reut/index.htm?postversion=2007062811

[rjohnstone]

Fucking great.

There will be TONS of guitars and other gear collecting dust for years if they try and set minimum prices above what the market would allow.

I think retailers are the ones that should be pissed.
They will have no way of moving dead stock. And I'm sure their wholesale agreements are written that they cannot return unsold stock without severe penalties.

[Spivonious]

I think the companies making agreements will quickly learn that if all of their gear must be sold at MSRP, then no one will buy their gear.

[joshulator]

Wow! I'm not an economics expert, but that is huge!

I'll have to wrap my head around this one. Who is this good for? Who does it hurt? If every seller is forced to sell product at exactly the same price (which I suspect will be the result of this), then what is to separate one seller from another?

[rjohnstone]

Think Apple.
They have a stringent price policy and have been doing this for years.
Any retailer selling NEW Apple products, could only sell within +/- $10 of Apples price listed on their web site.
Any retailer that tried to sell for less got their contracts canceled and could no longer be an "Authorized Retailer".

[Ralph E.]

Another example of the world moving towards corporate rule, as opposed to government by the people.

Every branch and department of government is quietly controlled by these greedy, life-sucking scumbag conglomerates.

Fuck'em all, i'll just by used from now on and search out good deals.

[pro-fusion]

I don't know about other retailers, but Guitar Center has a lot of leverage and I suspect will refuse to carry brands that do this stuff. Of course, GC has supposedly had their own pricing issues lately.

[hippietim]

No surprise based on who is sitting in the court. Expect a lot more of this sort of nonsense.

[rjohnstone]

I couldn't agree more.
The corporate suits own the White House, the Senate and the Supreme Court. Most of Congress too, but not all of them... yet.

[hippietim]

What's funny is that the dumb fucks that filed the suit are the ones that will lose out. Their overpriced handbags will just get duped in a Chinese labor sweathouse for 1/20th the cost, those folks won't do a jackass minimum selling price, and all the shops will start selling the Chinese knockoffs for a higher profit and they'll still be cheaper for the American consumer.

[slayer]

Another example of the world moving towards corporate rule, as opposed to government by the people.

Every branch and department of government is quietly controlled by these greedy, life-sucking scumbag conglomerates.

Fuck'em all, i'll just by used from now on and search out good deals.

I agree with this Ralph. I truely hate all our of our governments in the US now. I don`t rust them at all and feel it is all about their bottom line now and could give a fuck about us. A few examples is NAFTA and letting all of the Illegal Immegrants run wild and doing nothing about it and also enabling them. Fuck our government They are peices of shit. A revolution is in order very soon. They think they can shit all over real Americans and get away with what ever they want. This kinda shit makes my blood boil!! Jack.

[YetAnotherOne]

This is really more of a full employment act for lawyers than anything else. The central problem with our government is not corporate rule or utterly inane politicians it is that we have a government of, by and for the benefit of lawyers everywhere.

What this decision does is merely allow the courts to examine price guarantees on an individual basis rather than forcing the courts to declare all such agreements illegal per se. Who benefits there? Looks like the lawyers who'll be trying all of the cases to me.

This doesn't allow price-fixing among manufacturers so there'll be just as much competition (or lack thereof) in the marketplace as there is right now among different manufacturers. The only consumers who will truly be hurt are those that just have to have a certain name brand on the items they buy, those will fetch larger premiums but that isn't really the segment of the market that needs the most protection now is it?

Don't like the price of guitars? Think they cost way too much? Set up your own shop and see if you can sell a better product for less dough. After all if this decision really leads to the sort of price gouging you all seem to be worried about there'll be big fat margins out there for you to tap in to. Should be easy, no?

[UFORocks]

Talk about giving the shaft to the people. Expect gas prices to rise another $0.50 a gallon.

It goes to show how separated this government is from its people.

[YetAnotherOne]

LOL - As if the government can do anything about gas prices (aside from repealing the gas tax that is).

[danastas]

I agree with this Ralph. I truely hate all our of our governments in the US now. I don`t rust them at all and feel it is all about their bottom line now and could give a fuck about us. A few examples is NAFTA and letting all of the Illegal Immegrants run wild and doing nothing about it and also enabling them. Fuck our government They are peices of shit. A revolution is in order very soon. They think they can shit all over real Americans and get away with what ever they want. This kinda shit makes my blood boil!! Jack.

Why blame illegal immigrants, especially when the gov't has always been doing this stuff. Always. Except in the past it was much much worse. Before unions that is.