Barak Orbach’s Über-RPM Website, Article
Barak Orbach of the University of Arizona is in the process of creating a comprehensive RPM web archive. Orbach’s new paper, Antitrust Vertical Myopia: The Allure of High Prices and Consumer Experiences, provides an in depth discussion of the practice. Here’s the abstract:
Low prices are one of antitrust law’s traditional promises to society. Resale price maintenance (”RPM”), the practice whereby a manufacturer sets pricing rules for retailers, artificially inflates prices and, thus, allegedly runs afoul of antitrust laws. The practice emerged in the last quarter of the nineteenth century with the rise of advertising and has been one of the most controversial antitrust topics ever since. This Essay examines the practice of RPM and argues that courts and scholars have been trapped in the habit of using traditional arguments for and against the practice, overlooking its common uses in markets for premium-brand goods. The Essay argues that manufacturers of premium-brand goods often use RPM to protect the appeal of their products as status goods.
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