Essays on Price-Fixing

Introduction

For a long time, consumers in the United Arab Emirates suffered from unfair competitive practices that they experienced as a result of companies looking to gain the best profits. The companies thus took advantage of the fact that there were no existent rules and regulations that could control the unhealthy competition in the region. Unhealthy competition is act as a barrier to new firms joining that would automatically provide services that are price friendly to the users. Additionally, consumers are supposed to receive quality goods and services from the companies. However, in the presence of weak regulations with regards ...

Price competition is the core element of a free-market economy. Firms and organizations have been engaging each other in pricing behaviors like price fixing, price collusion, predatory pricing, deceptive price advertising, price confusion, resale price maintenance, and price discrimination amongst others (Grewal, and Compeau 3). These practices concerning pricing have a great impact on the public welfare. As a result, the government has taken the position of implementing legislation and judicial policies that aim at regulating the price behaviors in organizations. Other agencies that monitor pricing include the federal and local government. According to Grewal, and Compeau (3), the ...

Chapter 3: The American Judicial System, Jurisdiction and Venue

This memo reports the concerns raised in your e-mail regarding Santiago’s plan to expand the functionality of the website to use the email advertisement for selected customers and include ordering the products online. I would like to bring it to your notice that the plans to expand the website and email advertisements subjects us to be under the authority of out of state courts in case there is any difference of opinion related to our products and services. This authority is recognized as a law by the court that describes the businesses conducted outside the local state must be ...

Questions

1. Do you believe the labels that they were not acting in their own self-interest?

I do not believe that the labels were not acting in their own self-interest. By setting a price floor for their CDs (minimum advertised pricing) they were effectively able to control the revenue they would get. This ‘minimum price’ was set high and this led to higher profit margins at the expense of the consumers.2. Is this a price-fixing scheme or a pure case of altruism?

This was a case of price-fixing. By getting retailers to sell their CDs at an agreed price, the music labels were ...

Price fixing is a critical economic factor that determines the price at which various traders across the globe sell their goods and services. A point to note is that for the price fixing to be fair and just to consumers, government regulations are essential. It is for this reason and no other reason that the federal government has two major concerns for price fixing (Connor, 2001). The federal government is greatly concern with any agreement or collusion made by the competitors in price fixing. Secondly, bid rigging is another major concern for the federal government. My primary concern is the ...

Question 1

On august 31, 1969 in the United States District Court M.D. North Carolina, Greensboro Division the United States of America as plaintiff, seeks to restrain and prevent the alleged violation of section 1 of the Sherman Act. The complainant, United States of America accused defendants of exchanging among themselves information involving price that have been charged, quoted, or contracted to charge to particular customers. The defendants were allegedly doing this with the aim of restricting price competition among themselves in the corrugated containers business in the Southeastern United States. However, the complaints of price fixing and violation of Sherman ...

Problem StatementAs chief legal officer of his company, Alistair is responsible for submitting advisory reports to the company’s board, mostly on request. When requested to conduct a price-fixing problem in the company’s European offices, Alistair finds out that the major problem in the company’s European offices is not price fixing. However, as he almost concludes his report on this issue, he finds out that there is an issue with the Bosnia contract. The company signed a contract with a major relief organization in Bosnia to supply over a million inexpensive kits of medicine for delivery into the war torn Bosnia ( ...

Higher Educational Establishment

Introduction Aggregate demand and interest rates, along with the actual economic growth and the prospects are the benchmarks of any Federal government. In order to control the economy, government uses monetary policies to analyze essential measures.

Open Market Operation

Open Market Operations involve purchase and selling of governmental securities which helps to stabilize inflation. The Federal funds rate is equal to the interest and lending rates, according to which financial institutions charge for the loans. The Domestic Open Market Operations are guided by the Federal Open Market Committee and continuing with the aid of strengthening the efforts to support economy recovery ...

Introduction

Market structures are dependent on various factors ranging from the number of firms operating in a certain market to the market power enjoyed by specific firms. In that respect, different markets require different regulations in a bid to achieve efficiency in terms of competition fairness and service to consumer as well as social interests. Thus, the structure differences call for different types of regulations including industrial and social regulations all of which have different purposes. In addition, enforcing the laws requires specific authorities which have mandates to ensure that market and social efficiency is achieved. In that consideration, this analysis seeks ...

333 U.S. 364, U.S. v. United States Gypsum Co. (1948)

Abstract

The case is between United States v United States Gypsum Co 333 U.S.364 (1948). United States was the plaintiff while the United States Gypsum Company was the defendant. The case was argued on 14th and 15th November 1947. However, it was decided on 8th March 1948. The facts of the case were that the defendants had violated the Sharman Act. They acted in a manner which was likely to eliminate competition in the industry. The first defendant, who was dominant in the Gypsum industry, granted patents to another defendant who ...

Introduction

There are various forms of market. Each has their own set of characteristics such as the number of sellers, the level of competition, the response of the market to every decision made by the sellers and vice versa, and basically all sorts of factors that come into play whenever we talk about microeconomics. Market structure, in economics, is the term used to describe the varying number of firms that produce the same or identical products and line of products. Monopolistic competition, oligopoly, duopoly, monopsony, oligopsony, and perfect competition are all types of market structure and to be able to ...

According to the Philippines’ systematic summary of the 1983 to 2006 Balance of payment, that shows all its transactions in reference to the rest of the world, it is reflected that economy has always been ever changing with inconsistencies and policy experimentations. It is also a reflection of different external and internal factors have affected her economy hence exhibited by a “boom and bust” trend. For many ages, the Philippines have been a largely preferred commercial center owing to its ethnic minority-the pioneer Chinese occupants. During the first and early second millennium, the archipelago had been rampantly visited by people of ...

Introduction

Predatory Pricing refers to the practice of some dominant firms in selling goods and service at a rate so low that the competitors are likely to phase out of the market if they are unable to compete the lower price. This predation in price also acts as deterrent for potential new competitors to make an entry into the market. Though consumers are benefitted when the price war wages between the predators and their competitors, but when the competitors eventually go out of business, the predators create a monopoly in the market which is not at all beneficial for the consumers in ...

Following the American Psychological Association’s Guidelines

The Nature of Competitive Market Structures Market structures define the nature and characteristics of the competition that exists among the firms or sellers in a particular industry. There are generally four areas that are the foci in the study of market structures of industries: (1) firm boundaries, (2) seller concentration, (3) product differentiation, and (4) conditions of entry (Church and Ware, 2000). Firm boundaries apply to questions like why companies integrate vertically or why they outsource products and services. Seller concentration pertains to how many firms account for a greater percent of the market revenues or sales. Product differentiation refers ...

The 1890 Sherman Anti-trust Act is identified as the first and most critical of all U.S antitrust laws. The act, which was signed into formal law by the then president, Benjamin Harrison was named after its biggest campaigner, John Sherman, who was the Ohio Senator then. The Act explains the primary reasons why consumers are best served by a free trade, without many restrictions. The primary reasons why price fixing among sellers comes with such things as restrictions on output and geographic areas is to create a business environment that does not encourage the presence of monopolies. According to the ...

Landmark Antitrust Case Study Assignment:

1. Write a 100- word abstract of the case, including the date of the case.

In the case of 268 U.S. 563, Maple Flooring Manufacturers Assn. et al. v. U.S. (1925), the association that is an unincorporated 'trade association' are the defendants. It involved 22 members of the association, corporate defendants, engaged in a business agreement of shipping and selling birch, beech, and maple flooring in interstate commerce. However, all but two of them had their principal business places in Wisconsin, Minnesota, or Michigan (where one defendant was located in New York and one in Illinois). The individual representatives of each ...

Protection of Customers’ Interests under the Terms of the Competition Act 1998

Introduction Effective competition is considered to be the crucial factor both for protection of consumers’ interests and for business sector development. Protection of consumers’ interests is the key issue for the development of effective competition policy. Maintenance of effective competition in the UK markets is important to achieve necessary balance between prices and supply of goods. The first part of this essay is devoted to the competition issues, detailed analysis of practical implications of the Competition Law 1998, protection of consumers’ interests, and analysis of the lawsuits with regard to the Act. The second part of ...

General Electric

A price fixing scheme is an arrangement in which competing businesses set up a mechanism to fix prices of certain commodities in an effort to steer clear of price competitions. Price fixing is a criminal offence since it promotes unfair competition and the public is denied access to those commodities at reasonable prices. General Electric and other suppliers of heavy electrical equipment engaged in price fixing schemes until 1960. When General Electric withdrew from the price fixing schemes meeting, prices fell gradually upto a bottom low of between 45 to 50 percent from the book price. Therefore, the equilibrium price during the ...