akmac - 10:19 pm on Aug 10, 2007 (gmt 0)

ho-hum. The only thing this means is that future cases of vertical price fixing will be judged under the rule of reason, as opposed to being per se illegal. Horizontal price fixing is still illegal. The simplified difference between the two being whether the price is set by a manufacturer for the retailer (=vertical=sometimes legal) or by a group of retailers (=horizontal= always illegal).

My suppliers can require me to abide by minimum prices, but I can't conspire with my group of buddy retailers to keep prices either artificially high (more profits in the short term) or low (killing competition, more profits in the long term, theoretically).

Another issue, is the manufacturers that require minimum prices but either enforce the policy selectively, or not at all. That one gets me steamed.