The Deacon wrote: ↑Wed Jul 04, 2018 3:11 am
I'm not a lawyer, but I'm fairly sure the decisions you refer to were about industry wide price fixing, where multiple sellers of similar products (like music CD's) collude and agree not to undersell one another. I think MAP is more like an end run around the 1975 repeal of the old Fair Trade Laws, which allowed manufacturers to require dealers to sell their products at full retail price. MAP, only limits advertised price, so it's not quite the same. You, as a buyer, can always call a dealer and attempt to negotiate a better price.
I doubt Spyderco, or any of the other manufacturers using MAP, would be doing so if it was illegal. There were companies, the pen manufacturer Mont Blanc comes to mind, requiring their dealers to follow MAP years before Spyderco adopted it. You'd think some dealer, somewhere, would have challenged it by now if it was illegal.
Thank you Paul. Pricing on some fine goods have been this way, still a form of price fixing legal or not yes. Just worrisome that it is now being done to curb online sales and a wallet shock when it is so artificial. I'm not seeing new knife stores opening because of this, I hope it really is saving the remaining ones... At many loyal customer's expense (many have no access to brick and mortar).
Seems legal:
https://www.thebalancesmb.com/what-is-m ... ce-2890196
So, even if it is meant to curtail online retailers (with or without a physical store) and even the playing field, Spyderco dealers online still can implement "add to cart for price" if they wanted to.BUT THEY DO NOT ANYMORE! Perhaps (a guess) they were made to follow an agreement that even the deepest discounters do not sell below MAP. I
have called CS and KW, and they said Spyderco does not allow us to sell below MAP.. National Knives may still be able to, as they responded with disapproval to Spyderco's MAP but haven't purchased new Spydies so I have not tried. I buy solely from exchanges now.
This is such an issue for me because MAP implementation has affected the only way I can purchase Spydercos as there is not a halfway decent brick and mortar dealer within 500 miles of me. It's at least a 10% artificial price hike (pre-MAP best discounters were 45% off MSRP). Inflation (normal), yearly 5% raise, and the eventual worsening of MAP % adds up.