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Resale price maintenance (RPM) (US) or Retail Price Maintenance (UK) is the practice whereby a manufacturer and its distributors agree that the distributors will sell the manufacturer's product at certain prices (resale price maintenance), at or above a price floor (minimum resale price maintenance) or at or below a price ceiling (maximum resale price maintenance). If a reseller refuses to maintain prices, either openly or covertly (see grey market), the manufacturer may stop doing business with it.〔This was what actually happened in the important U.S. Supreme Court case, ''Leegin Creative Leather Products, Inc. v. PSKS, Inc.'' (2007).〕 Resale price maintenance prevents resellers from competing too fiercely on price, especially with regard to fungible goods. Otherwise, resellers worry it could drive down profits for themselves as well as for the manufacturer. Some argue that the manufacturer may do this because it wishes to keep resellers profitable, thus keeping the manufacturer profitable. Others contend that minimum resale price maintenance, for instance, overcomes a failure in the market for distributional services by ensuring that distributors who invest in promoting the manufacturer's product are able to recoup the additional costs of such promotion in the price that they charge consumers. Some manufacturers also defend resale price maintenance by saying it ensures fair returns, both for manufacturer and reseller and that governments do not have the right to interfere with freedom to make contracts without a very good reason. Governments can sometimes be seen as upholding price controls as in the case of CD WOW!. When a Minimum Resale Price is set on a product, it is easy for consumers to find that product's lowest price. That makes shopping much easier. Two non-competing sellers of any offer (not just a manufacturer's product) can set a Minimum Resale Price on it. ==United Kingdom law== (詳細はDunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co Ltd v Selfridge & Co Ltd'' () AC 847, an English contract law case, the House of Lords held that Dunlop Tyres (a tyre manufacturer) could not enforce an agreement between a tyre dealer and a tyre buyer to pay £5 per sale under a liquidated damages clause if tyres were sold (other than to motor traders) below the list price. However, this had nothing to do with the legality of resale price maintenance clauses, which was not in any question at the time: the decision was based on the doctrine of privity of contract as Selfridges had bought Dunlop's goods from an intermediary. In the case of ''Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co Ltd v New Garage & Motor Co Ltd'' () AC 79 the House of Lords upheld the enforceability of the requirement in the resale price maintenance clause, to pay £5 damages per item sold below list price, on the basis that it was not a penalty clause (which would be unenforceable) but a valid and enforceable liquidated damages clause. In 1955, the Monopolies and Mergers Commission's report ''Collective Discrimination - A Report on Exclusive Dealing, Aggregated Rebates and Other Discriminatory Trade Practices'' recommended that resale price maintenance, when collectively enforced by manufacturers should be made illegal, but individual manufacturers should be allowed to continue the practice. The report was the basis for the Restrictive Trade Practices Act 1956, specifically prohibiting collective enforcement of resale price maintenance in the UK. Restrictive agreements had to be registered at the Restrictive Practices Court and were considered on individual merit. In 1964, the Resale Prices Act was passed, which now considered all resale price agreements to be against public interest unless proven otherwise. In 2010, in what could be a landmark case, the Office of Fair Trading started to investigate 〔http://www.oft.gov.uk/OFTwork/competition-act-and-cartels/ca98-current/online-booking/〕 allegations of resale price maintenance in the hotel industry. The investigation will focus on allegations that there could be agreements and concerted practices resulting in fixed or minimum resale prices.〔http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11330463〕 In relation to competition, Article 101 and Article 102 of the Treaty on Functioning of the EU (TFEU) are paramount over all member states' national laws relating to competition. The ECJ and the Commission have both held that Resale Price Maintenance is generally prohibited. UK law must apply this interpretation when dealing with inter member-state agreements between undertakings. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Resale price maintenance」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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