What is Price Fixing and Why is it Illegal?

[funkypuppy]

So I've been reading up on here and the archives of another place (im cheating on you! I'm sorry!) About pricing and price fixing. The first thing that comes to mind is fancy restaurants with a prix (sp) fixe (sp) menu. It's not illegal there...

What is it? Is it when I call my local groomer buddy and say "im charging NO less than xx training bras for a shih-ka-poo, you do the same. And I promise to charge NO MORE than xxx training bras for a Giant Pyra-Cocka--Danish-Doodle. Let's get everyone on the same page so no one undercuts another groomer and all of us make a reasonable wage."

Is that price fixing? Why is that illegal? Admin, please don't ban me, I am curious and trying to learn. If this is an illegal subject, please remove it and forget I posted it!

Admin: Ban you for what? Fixed price in restaurants is entirely totally different and nothing to do with fixing prices with other restaurants. Let me share that I know of several grooming business in the same county, same town that all got together and all set their prices the same as each other. To make a long story short, they got in trouble for doing that.

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[Doubledogdare]

"Price fixing" is exactly what you described - groups, companies or individuals getting together in advance to set an identical agreed price on goods and services and doing away with competition in the marketplace, to the detriment of consumers of those goods and services.

Activities of that sort are a violation of the Sherman Act (1890), and if you slept through the lecture on the Sherman Act while you were in economics class in high school, you'll get your memory refreshed in a big hurry if you get caught violating antitrust law 'cause you'll be in a world of hurt over it.

[Particentral]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_fixing

http://business-law.freeadvice.com/b...ice_fixing.htm

[Emma123]

A prix fixe meal in a restaurant is a complete meal offered at a fixed price. The price is not determined by what other restaurants are charging for that same meal. I can see how someone could find that confusing, since the term is so similar to price fixing!

Unsustainably low pricing is common in grooming. Instead of fixing prices, seeking out education about ways to increase income is important. If you are concerned about ways to increase your income and want to know how to earn what your skills deserve, there are a lot of successful groomers on this forum who can guide you.

[Admin]

I forgot to explain a little further our policies and price fixing. In the past message board owners have been contacted and asked to refrain from allowing their board to be used for members doing price comparisons and possibly engaging in price fixing practices. So that's why we can talk in general about grooming prices, but not sharing actual prices. Thanks!

[Darkdays04]

It's not about setting prices low, it's about setting prices high. If I made a deal with every Groomer in my city to all raise our prices to 60$ for a small bath, it would double the price for a lot of clients. If i did that in my own shop, people would go elsewhere. But if I had every shop set the same high price, the free market wouldn't operate as it is supposed to and stabilize prices.

[wolfy-hound]

It's about having a free market, not about having any certain price in a single business.

Think about it in more important businesses...

If all the bread bakers got together and said "Hey, if we ALL say that bread costs $15 per loaf, then people will have to pay us that much!" So all the bakers raise the prices and everyone starts starving because bread costs so much and no one can find cheaper bread because ALL the bakers are in on the "price fixing".

It's the same with most every business area. I honestly think that no one is really concerned with groomers, since we are not exactly a business that people require for everyday life. And comparing prices is NOT illegal. Setting prices to coincide with all the other businesses to the detriment of the consumers is "price fixing". BUT if a large group of people in the same business are all comparing prices back and forth, it starts looking very suspicious.

We used to call around talking pricing, but no one groomer set the prices, and we all had different pricing. So even though we all pretty much knew what other groomers charge, we did not artificially raise any prices, nor did we set prices alike.

I myself doubt that any website of groomers scattered across the United States(not even counting the international members!) can "fix" prices. For one thing, there's plenty of groomers who are not online, much less on this particular site(or any particular site), and groomers are highly individually set folks. Someone in New York charges more than I did in little podunk Melrose Florida. But their expenses are more, or perhaps my clientele is higher income.. or maybe we offer differing levels of services(coloring, creative grooming, show grooming, strips for farm dogs, etc etc).

And now I realize, I'm rambling again.

[funkypuppy]

Feel free to ramble! Im learning a lot. I guess I'm a little naive, I totally thought of it as everyone joining hands not to undercut each other. Then maybe singing Kumbaya and playing hot potato with an adorable shih Tzu puppy.

I can understand why it would be wrong for everyone to decide to up the price like that... so even union people dont do that? Even plumbers and similar?
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[kat05]

I wish plumbers did that!! So they would all be equal and some of the jobs would go to everyone instead of the company that underbids everyone by 20%. Then goes out of business during the job because duh!! 20% is alot!!!! But for some reason there is always one of the new start up companies coming in to do that...

[ItzaClip!]

Sometimes I swear the gas stations do that.... Is it just by chance they all go up the exact amount on long weekends.

[Darkdays04]

Sometimes I swear the gas stations do that.... Is it just by chance they all go up the exact amount on long weekends.

It's not price fixing, it's based on the price of oil. And unfortunately, since our oil is almost exclusively purchased by OPEC countries that fix prices, they raise the price when they feel like it. And thus the stations have to raise the price too.

[kat05]

All I know is I want to price fix the shop down the street... LOL I do not want or will I do a golden retreiver for 35.00!!! I want to price fix them!!! Mine are not as high as I think they should be but they run at least 15.00 more then they do.

[wolfy-hound]

Having a "cheapo" groomer around can be great, since all the cheap clients will go there. Also, a groomer who underprices themselves has to do a LOT more dogs to make the bills, so they'll burn out.