[TriLUG] OT: Price Fixing and Fair Competition (Was Developer Rates)

[Marty Ferguson]

All,

A bunch of real estate brokers "simply discussing" (conspiring) to
raise their fees (MLS Listing Commissions) at dinner could in fact
be construed as price fixing, I agree.  Authors of HTML, each working
as *free agents*, and are in no way controlling or influencing the
marketplace.  They have both a need and a right to know the fair market
value of their services.  IANAL either, but there is a clear distinction
between these two situations. Their customers always have a right
to get price quotes from EDS' overseas offices.

Do a google on "union scale"  "per hour" and see what you discover.

I read the DOJ document previously cited, and it is fairly clear about the
domain of market manipulation they are attempting to regulate. Government
has both the power and responsibility to create and regulate markets.
The idea behind anti-trust legislation is to regulate markets to the extent
that *fair and open* commerce can occur.

So if you want to be inflamed about something, consider being inflamed
about the practice of using prison labor to run legitimate small operators
out of businesses through sectioned predatory pricing practices.
Like printing shops, small time electronics board shops...  the list is
enormous.
I've seen some of the testimony on CSPAN.

http://www.bizjournals.com/extraedge/washingtonbureau/archive/2002/11/04/bur
eau2.html

Here is the formula:
o Maintain a rightous war on drugs
o Bust a bunch of 21st century hippie potheads (Tommy Chong, for selling
bongs)
o Throw their a$$es in prisons which are operated by for-profit corporations
(WhackANut)
o Have them housed, fed and clothed at the taxpayer expense
o Pay them less than minimum wage for running printing presses, help desks,
etc.
o Compel federal purchase contracts to buy from these operations
o Force legitimate commercial operations out of business

Marty

-----Original Message-----
From: trilug-bounces at trilug.org [mailto:trilug-bounces at trilug.org]On
Behalf Of Jim Wright
Sent: Friday, April 23, 2004 6:43 AM
To: Triangle Linux Users Group discussion list
Subject: RE: [TriLUG] OT: Developer Rates


Again, IANAL, but this is where I had read this previously....
>From http://www.hwg.org/resources/faqs/priceFAQ.html ...

"Is it illegal to discuss pricing?
The short answer: YES (at least in the U.S. where many of our members
are).

The U.S. law specifically makes discussion of pricing between
competitors (all or some) a federal offense. According to either
Marshall Kragen or Lewis Rose (both practicing lawyers), several brokers
in DC were successfully prosecuted for simply discussing an increase of
fees at a dinner meeting.

When, where, or how doesn't matter. Any discussion of pricing by a group
of people within the same industry is illegal in the U.S. The feds call
it price fixing."

And this is from a DOJ document at
http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/public/guidelines/primer-ncu.htm

<SNIP>