Tableware manufacturers often want to set retail prices, but are afraid of being accused of price fixing. According to the article below from today's Wall St. Journal, due to a court decision last year manufacturers now are much more likely to be able to set prices. I'd be happy to hear your thoughts about the article below. (The story appears on the front page, if you'd like read the print version.)
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Wall St. Journal Price-Fixing Makes Comeback After Supreme Court Ruling By JOSEPH PEREIRA August 18, 2008; Page A1 Manufacturers are embracing broad new legal powers that amount to a type of price-fixing -- enabling them to set minimum prices on their products and force retailers to refrain from discounting.
For the better part of a century, punishing retailers for selling at cut-rate prices was an automatic violation of antitrust law. However, a Supreme Court ruling last year involving handbag sales at a Dallas mom-and-pop store, Kay's Kloset, upended that original 1911 precedent, potentially altering the face of U.S. discount retailing.