Comments on: More on Leegin, Dr. Miles, and RPM http://www.antitrustreview.com/archives/871 News and commentary about antitrust, economics, technology, policy Mon, 15 Feb 2010 15:26:52 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Jerry Kohl http://www.antitrustreview.com/archives/871/comment-page-1#comment-9013 Jerry Kohl Wed, 11 Apr 2007 00:30:17 +0000 http://www.antitrustreview.com/archives/871#comment-9013 <p>Hanno: I think you aren't thinking. Want to buy a stereo that your dealer won't give service? (tells you to send it in) Want to buy custom made shoes with a trained person fitting you? Want to buy a car that the selling dealer won't service it? Want to by a Rolex watch from a dealer that wouldn't fix it?</p> <p>If Walmart was allowed to sell these products you wouldn't get any service.. </p> <p>Think about this. This case is about mfg's pricing of products not all mfg's getting together setting a price (Coke and Pepsi). A small mfg has to find a way of competing with people like Walmart and others. If it was only about price they wouldn't be in business. Consumers have 1000's of opportunities of where to shop. If a mfg's prices his products unfairly consumers will simply go next door.</p> <p>97 years ago when Miles began there wasn't the internet and 1000's of choices.</p> Hanno: I think you aren’t thinking. Want to buy a stereo that your dealer won’t give service? (tells you to send it in) Want to buy custom made shoes with a trained person fitting you? Want to buy a car that the selling dealer won’t service it? Want to by a Rolex watch from a dealer that wouldn’t fix it?

If Walmart was allowed to sell these products you wouldn’t get any service..

Think about this. This case is about mfg’s pricing of products not all mfg’s getting together setting a price (Coke and Pepsi). A small mfg has to find a way of competing with people like Walmart and others. If it was only about price they wouldn’t be in business. Consumers have 1000’s of opportunities of where to shop. If a mfg’s prices his products unfairly consumers will simply go next door.

97 years ago when Miles began there wasn’t the internet and 1000’s of choices.

]]> By: Hanno Kaiser http://www.antitrustreview.com/archives/871/comment-page-1#comment-9010 Hanno Kaiser Tue, 10 Apr 2007 00:08:23 +0000 http://www.antitrustreview.com/archives/871#comment-9010 <p>As Harry Gerla pointed out in a comment to a previous post, the free rider argument is certainly convincing in theory. However, how much <strong>actual free riding</strong> occurs is a different question. Prompted by Harry's comment, I started searching for empirical studies on the topic, but (so far) I haven't been able to find anything useful. Some businesses may indeed be point of sale service dependent, but for most retail goods I doubt that as much free riding occurs as proponents of the rule of reason seem to assume. At the very least, free riding should diminish over time as a result of comprehensive, free information on the web.</p> As Harry Gerla pointed out in a comment to a previous post, the free rider argument is certainly convincing in theory. However, how much actual free riding occurs is a different question. Prompted by Harry’s comment, I started searching for empirical studies on the topic, but (so far) I haven’t been able to find anything useful. Some businesses may indeed be point of sale service dependent, but for most retail goods I doubt that as much free riding occurs as proponents of the rule of reason seem to assume. At the very least, free riding should diminish over time as a result of comprehensive, free information on the web.

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