[rollei_list] Re: Fair Trade Laws
- From: "Richard Knoppow" <dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2008 13:28:51 -0700
----- Original Message -----
From: "Marc James Small" <marcsmall@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Internet Directory of Camera Collectors"
<idcc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; <rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>;
<lug@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; <ZICG@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, August 20, 2008 9:54 AM
Subject: [rollei_list] Fair Trade Laws
Until the late 1940's, manufacturers were allowed
to set the retail prices for their wares. That
is, say, Ernst Leitz could direct that a IIIc
camera body be sold for $185 and, if a dealer
undercut this, could then regard the distribution
contract as breached and could then refuse to
sell any more gear to that dealer. This became a
political issue as it was seen to run in
contravention to the US Federal distaste for monopolistic
practices.
This changed under the Truman Administration when
Congress enacted a "Fair Trade Law", later
tightened under the Kennedy Administration in the 1960's.
Under the first version, in effect during the
1950's and early 1960's, the manufacturers were
only permitted to set the selling price if the
component were sold complete and entire as
delivered from the manufacturer. Thus, a camera
dealer still found his price fixed by the
manufacturer when he sold a camera body alone or
a camera body with a lens from the same
manufacturer, but could sell at whatever price he
wished if he placed a lens from another
manufacturer on the body. Thus, a dealer was on
his own he sold a Leica IIIf body equipped with a
2" f/2 Cooke Amotal lens or the like. And thus
was born that wonderful world of non-Leitz LTM
lenses. (Someone should write a book .... oh, I already
did!)
The second version of the Fair Trade Laws, in
effect from the early 1960's, only allowed the
manufacturer to set the "Minimum Advertised
Price", or MAP. That is, the dealer was not
allowed to advertise a price below this but could
sell for whatever price he wished whether or not
the item was as delivered from the factory. This
led to all of those screaming ads in SHUDDERBUG: "CALL FOR
OUR BEST PRICE!"
The US Supreme Court in a poorly reported Opinion
not yet posted to their Web Site seems to have
ruled in the past several days that such Fair
Trade Laws are Constitutionally impermissible as
breaching the validity of contract between
manufacturer and dealer. I suspect that, once I
read the Opinion, I will agree with it
philosophically but I certainly am glad that the
Warren Court didn't rule that way on the initial
challenge in 1955 as then my book would have been half its
length ....
Marc
msmall@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Cha robh bàs fir gun ghràs fir!
On the last point could not one argue the legal theory
that the contract was illegal if it violated a principal of
law? Plus the issue of property rights: once a dealer pays
the manufacturer for something does it not become his
property?
As to the law about complete assemblies something
similiar applied to sales or perhaps it was the now defunct
excise tax, namely that it did not apply to parts. I
remember seeing ads for surplus equipment which could be
broken down to parts being sold at two prices, one for the
complete assembly and another for parts. As an example an
aerial camera being sold without the lens the lens being
available separately. One had to order the components
separately for this to apply. Excise and "luxury" taxes were
pretty silly and were regressive but the government needed
money to pay for the war (WW-2). No doubt we will be hearing
about proposals to bring them back now.
---
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA
dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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