In the publishing world, that is exactly what happened. 5 out of the 6 Big Publishers colluded and fixed prices.
Now imagine the same thing if 5 out of the 6 major studios (Warner Brothers, Sony, Disney, 20th Century Fox, Universal) did the same thing?
still good for consumers when these major studios get together and fix prices for DVDs and Blu-ray and forbid retailers from discounting?
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20...ts-public-interest-to-stop-price-fixing.shtml
As for the last issue (breaking up Amazon's dominance), she notes that it was "perhaps the most forceful species of criticism" but still does not find it persuasive here.
The court more or less notes that Amazon's market position isn't on trial, and its use of wholesale pricing does not equal price fixing, as some have alleged. Nor does it show "predatory" pricing, which was a key complaint.
The problem there: the evidence showed that Amazon was "consistently profitable." And, to show predatory pricing, "one must prove more than simply pricing below an appropriate measure of cost" but also that the company will jack up prices down the road. And all of the comments failed to do that:
Oh, and finally, the court points out that swinging back the blame to Amazon is meaningless for the purpose of this case, anyway, because even if the court accepted that Amazon was price fixing too, that doesn't make it okay for the publishers to price fix themselves. Think of it as the "two wrongs don't make a right" rule.
