Resale price maintenance: Explaining the controversy, and small steps towards a more nuanced policy

Bennett, Matthew and Fletcher, Amelia and Giovannetti, Emanuele and Stallibrass, David (2010): Resale price maintenance: Explaining the controversy, and small steps towards a more nuanced policy.

Abstract

The paper sets out why we consider that the legal framework in the EU amplifies what are in reality relatively small differences in thinking around RPM. Primarily, this is because it asks economists, in the name of legal certainty, to draw a false dichotomy between agreements and practices which are harmful and those which are beneficial. We then provide a summary of the literature on RPM and, based on this thinking, set out a few small steps that might be taken towards a more nuanced approach to assessing RPM, within a 'presumed illegality' framework without sacrificing the beneficial legal certainty that the current approach brings.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Competition Policy; RPM; Resale Price Maintenance
• Subjects: L - Industrial Organization > L4 - Antitrust Issues and Policies > L42 - Vertical Restraints ; Resale Price Maintenance ; Quantity Discounts; D - Microeconomics > D0 - General > D02 - Institutions: Design, Formation, Operations, and Impact; K - Law and Economics > K2 - Regulation and Business Law > K21 - Antitrust Law

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