Price Fixing

[Todd W]

So I sell magazines to the 4x4 community/friends and in the past year they have started requiring extensive record keeping for audits.

You must keep:
-Copy of "sales" ie: your site screenshot
-Copy of transaction. ie: screenshot of order in store software
-Copy of deposit. ie: funds deposited into your bank/paypal.

In order to sell magazines they require us to sell them at the publishers rate if we sell lower and are audited (not by the IRS) and don't prove we sold at their rate they will deauthorize.

Is this NOT price fixing? We are NOT allowed to discount them at all! We are not allowed to do "give aways" on our sites for promotions. We are not allowed to offer buy one get one free.

Hell they told me I can not allow my visitors to use coupon codes for magazines! (IE: Someone spends $100 I give them 5% off next order! I was told this can NOT be applied to magazines.)

For gift cards I have to keep proof ot he gift card purchase in case of audit and show them how much they paid for the gift card and how it was applied and for which item.

This seem VERY illegal to me...

Anyone know more?

-Todd

[Shawn]

Doesn't the video game industry require this? As in, new games have to sell for the same price everywhere? I've always wondered about that.

[GeorgeB]

Yeah that sucks. Chris ahs a lot of eCommerce experience so maybe he can recommend some alternatives or loopholes?

[Chris]

It is standard for manufacturers to put in pricing limits for retailers. probably 2/3rds of the manufacturers I use do it.

They cannot forbid you to sell the items at a lower price, once you buy the items from them they are your property. However, they can choose not to sell you any more if they don't like what you're doing.

[Todd W]

It is standard for manufacturers to put in pricing limits for retailers. probably 2/3rds of the manufacturers I use do it.

They cannot forbid you to sell the items at a lower price, once you buy the items from them they are your property. However, they can choose not to sell you any more if they don't like what you're doing.

Yeah that's what I thought, and since they "dropship" the magazine subscriptions technically they just don't fullfill the order and I have to refund my customer.

I have some "ideas"... but I won't discuss here. I've got a couple more ?'s i'll ask in private.