МИНИМАЛНЕ МАЛОПРОДАЈНЕ ЦЕНЕ: ЛЕГАЛИЗАМ НАСПРАМ ЕФИКАСНОСТИ
RESALE PRICE MAINTENANCE: LEGAL VERSUS ECONOMIC APPROACHES

Summary/Abstract: Resale Price Maintenance (RPM) refers to agreements between a seller and a buyer setting limits to the price at which the buyer may resell the products pershased. It is concerned as the “hardcore constrain” in vertical agreements. We analyze a special case of RPM, still under investigation by the Commission for Protecting Competition, in which a manufacturer set, as an enforceable obligation, a price floor bellow which retailers may not sell the product, but the other manufacturers on the relevant market did not have such agreements. In the Serbian legal system RPM terms are per se forbiden and deemed annuled. Retailers dealing with the involved manufactures might be taken responsible for breaking the law on protecting competition. We argue in favor of replacing this rule with the opposite rule of reason under which the competition authority should balance procompetitive and anticompetitive effects of RPM in each case before it passes any decision. There are no apriory theoretical arguments to declare which rule is superior, neither clear empirical evidences whether RPM are always harmful for consumers.

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