Restraint of Trade Suit

[FredKing]

What is the name of your state? TENNESSEE

I am in the retail mattress business. A new mattress manufacturer is on the scene with a special type of foam. They do not let dealers, like me, advertise their mattresses without their consent, nor do they let us sell them at a price I set. The manufacturer controls the price with M.A.P.. They also do not allow any advertising of business on the Internet. Is this a restraint of trade issue? They have now cut me off and will not sell to me any longer because I "sell the beds to cheaply". Do I have a lawsuit?

 

[divgradcurl]

A manufacturer is generally free to dictate terms of sale to its distributors. Antitrust laws are designed to protect consumers, not distributors; if the mattress company wants to keep the prices high, it can. As long as consumers can still buy mattresses from other manufacturers, and the manufacturers themselves aren't getting together to keep prices high, there is no antitrust issue. You can either play by their rules, or stop selling their mattresses.

BTW, these kinds of distributor agreements are actually pretty common, especially amongst upscale products where a hgiher prices helps to denote quality and exclusivity...