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Old 18-12-2015, 10:54 AM   #5
SunEye
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Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Bognor Regis
Bike: Other Ducati
Posts: 589
A retailer can sell a product at whatever price they want to. A manufacturer or supplier cannot dictate what price a retailer sells their product for. That would be price fixing which is illegal and can get the company fined in the UK up to 10% of its worldwide turnover. Often a retailer will choose not to advertise a lower than RRP price so as not to upset the manufacturer (or because they are scared of the manufacturer) who doesn't like their product being sold cheaply because it devalues the brand.

However that doesn't stop companies threatening retailers that they will withdraw their supply of goods if the retailer doesn't do what they want e.g. display the products how they want, sell the complete range of products, hold a certain amount of stock, sell a specific number of items each quarter, etc. Basically everything other than telling them what price to sell the products at.

In a single manufacturer motorcycle dealership some of those things can be quite reasonable and I suspect would be covered by a contract. In the business that I'm more familiar with (music instrument retail) it can be ridiculous for a shop that stocks thousands of items from dozens of manufacturers to be told by a distributor where their products must be positioned in your shop and to have a distributor force you to take products that you know won't sell to your customers because otherwise they won't let you sell the big selling items that they supply you.
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