>>Dealers are required to not
sell below EasyCares lowest suggested retail price of
$265.50.<<
Unfortunately for EasyCare, that practice has been
deemed unlawful a long time ago when a suit was brought by dealers against a
manufacturer for monopolistic practices. This is why you see "Suggested
Retail Price" as a standard term in catalogs and websites. Manufacturers
are prohibited from forcing retailers to sell at a specific price, and for
obvious reasons (how about free market competition?).
There are also obvious reasons why a manufacturer wants
to keep their retail prices at or above a certain level - it protects their
established dealer network against price wars and dealers dropping their
products because they can't make money selling it. The flipside is,
market-driven pricing eventually establishes stability without such
controls.
I encourage EasyCare to rethink their pricing
policies.
