certin speaker makers harder to get dissounts fro

You are mixed up. The manufacturer has the right to pull the line from any dealer who breaks the rules of the ML dealer contract. The rules can include discounting. Dealers can choose to bend this rules (and discount) and in most cases the manufacuter will look the other way as long as no other dealers are complaining. This is common practice in all segments of retail.

No_Money and Herman, you guys simply don't know what you are talking about.

Superhonestben is EXACTLY right!

The Sherman Act first addressed price fixing in 1890 and many cases have been adjudicated since. Case law is very clear and explicit. Do ten minutes of research and you will see how wrong you are.

ML or any other manufacturer CANNOT tell a retailer what they can sell their product for. It is illegal period!

What they can do is give the retailer a "suggested" retail price. If the retailer does not comply with the "suggested" price, then ML can choose to terminate the retailer.

As a PRACTICAL matter however, ML can get away with setting a retail price to dealers as long as dealers are willing to put up with the price-fixing. But that doesn't mean it's legal.

This is not price fixing. "Price fixing is an informal agreement between direct business competitors selling the same product regarding that product's pricing". A method of "price fixing" is for direct competitors to agree to set minimum price contracts from supplier to dealer for similar products. As such dealers such as ML can set minimum price limits for their products and it is not "price fixing". It WOULD be "price fixing" if ML and other companies with similar products got together and had an agreement to set a minimum price level for their similar products.

If I understood your explanation, then we could surmise that gasoline prices at present are the result of industry price fixing whereas the cable TV situation is the result of nothing more than a monopoly having its way. And if these things are illegal, where is the government?

Csmithbarc,

Geez, you guys are hard-headead. Please spend a little time doing research other than reading a simple definition from an online dictionary. There is tons of case law describing exactly what were are talking about here.

What ML is doing is price fixing by Federal Law if they are requiring dealers to sell their product at a certain price. It has nothing to do with any other speaker manufacturer's price. And some of you are confusing "vertical" price fixing with "horizontal" price fixing.

I could care less what ML prices their speakers at because I have no interest in purchasing their speakers. And the government could care less about ML's pricing also until someone starts screaming about it. As long as dealers or consumers aren't complaining long and hard about ML's pricing, the government has much bigger fish to fry.

But the fact remains, several of you here need to do some homework and stop spewing incorrect information until you have done some research.