Sun, 01 Jul 2007

Century-Old Ban Lifted on Minimum Retail Pricing

I guess we no longer have retailers, only manufacturers agents. I've ranted on this topic before, but the song remains the same. If you can't sell a object at whatever price the market commands (or dispose of it in any way you desire), then you really don't own that object. You are at best merely renting it, and at worst acting as an agent for it's real owner.

I'm not one who is a big believer in anti-trust laws (or in laws of any sort, for that matter), and how this particular rule came to be codified into such an instrument is a factoid I don't know, but nonetheless it still represented a time honored principle. Ownership demands control - this ruling, and others like it, are slowly eroding centuries of common law defining a sale, and in so doing are seriously weakening the very foundations of our market economy.

The Supreme Court’s decision will give producers significantly more, though not unlimited, power to dictate retail prices and to restrict discounter sellers.

(link) [NYT > Home Page]

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