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I there is a real negitive price war with three companies and prices have been lowered to a non profit point and on of the companies call the other two to clear the air and try to develop a relationship that allows each company to charge what they want but at a more resonable price or marked price for that. There were discussions about prices and also discussions about the bad blood. I was one of the companies invited and I did at the end say you know guys we have been talking about raising our prices back to our old pricing of $35 per person. one of the other companies told us what they thought they would raise there prices to and it was simular but not exactly the price we told them we were going to raise ours too. with this senerio be concitered price fixing

Submitted: 218 days and 22 hours ago.

Category: Legal

Value: $45

Status: AWAITING CUSTOMER ACTION

St george , Utah

Answer

Hello cj and welcome to JustAnswer.

Yes, what you and these others companies have agreed to is price fixing and is illegal under federal law. What you have done is called "horizontal" price fixing (price fixing among competitors) and is considered "per se" (or automatically) illegal under federal anti-trust law (the Sherman Anti-Trust Act). This means that it is illegal regardless of the effect, if any, on the market for the product involved.

You should contact each of these other companies and disavow these conversations. Advise them that you are going to charge whatever price you think is appropriate for the goods or services provided and that your prices will not be in any way related to either that conversation or the prices charged by your competitors.

In the end, if you all charge the same price for the same goods or services, that is not illegal. However, it is illegal for you to reach an agreement or understanding with your competitors to do so.

Thanks for asking your question here on JustAnswr. If you have any other questions, please let me know.

Accepts:
Expert:	RunTam38 CA lawyer
Pos. Feedback:	99.4 %
Answered:	4/17/2009

Attorney

California lawyer 33 years, including criminal & business law, PI and general litigation.

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