Drax Posted January 22, 2020 Share Posted January 22, 2020 https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jan/22/guitar-maker-fender-fined-45m-for-price-fixing-in-uk?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Krow Posted January 22, 2020 Share Posted January 22, 2020 (edited) Well they won't be doing that again in a hurry then! Edited January 22, 2020 by Al Krow 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nige1968 Posted January 22, 2020 Share Posted January 22, 2020 Reckon they’ll raise prices to compensate? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baceface Posted January 22, 2020 Share Posted January 22, 2020 And that was the result of a plea bargain: Quote The penalty would have been £14.2m had Fender not admitted to the offence under the CMA’s leniency and settlement procedures. I lack the knowledge to know if the fine is a good thing. On the face of it, it would seem to be excellent news but this is where someone far better informed points out that the decision will have some terrible knock-on effect that I hadn't considered. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Osiris Posted January 22, 2020 Share Posted January 22, 2020 This just popped up on my phone, thought it might be of interest to some of you. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/guitar-maker-fined-4-5m-for-illegally-preventing-price-discounts 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DorsetBlue Posted January 22, 2020 Share Posted January 22, 2020 Also from another source: https://eandt.theiet.org/content/articles/2020/01/guitar-company-fined-45m-for-anti-competitive-behaviour/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2elliot Posted January 22, 2020 Share Posted January 22, 2020 Good. I wouldn't be surprised if a few other manufacturers get pulled as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thodrik Posted January 22, 2020 Share Posted January 22, 2020 6 minutes ago, 2elliot said: Good. I wouldn't be surprised if a few other manufacturers get pulled as well. Oh yes, I'm sure that there are high level meetings at certain manufacturers taking place as we speak to discuss 'communication protocol' and 'historic communication data purging initiatives' after reading this: "The CMA also found that certain Fender employees deliberately tried to cover up their actions by recording as little as possible in writing. However, the investigation uncovered emails and texts from Fender’s IT servers and mobile phones, which proved the illegal behaviour." 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 22, 2020 Share Posted January 22, 2020 I’d be interested to know what Fender’s annual UK turnover amounts to - This fine must be a sizeable proportion? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teebs Posted January 22, 2020 Share Posted January 22, 2020 Good to know that they've been fined £4.5m, shame the money won't go to those customers who overpaid, and presumably will go to the gubberment instead, who always spend other people's money wisely... 1 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kodiakblair Posted January 22, 2020 Share Posted January 22, 2020 Should have hit them with the full whack £14 million fine and jailed the heid man. I'm sick of companies in this country taking the p!$$ and getting away with it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicko Posted January 22, 2020 Share Posted January 22, 2020 Does this mean I can sue the big F for illegally forcing me to pay an artificially high price for the last guitar I bought? No, thought not. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 22, 2020 Share Posted January 22, 2020 Funnily enough, last time I looked (a couple of weeks ago) an Ultra Jazz V was £1959 on their site. It is now £2,089 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Starr Posted January 22, 2020 Share Posted January 22, 2020 Of course the other big price fix/anti-competitive policy is that to stock Fender (or Gibson) retailers have to buy a minimum (but large) value of stock, effectively locking out small local music shops from stocking new Fenders as the entry price is too high for them to afford. It also means the medium sized outlets would have to choose between Fender and Gibson with only the biggest outlets able to afford to stock both. Either way the chance most of us have of going in and trying instruments and comparing them and then being able to shop around is highly constrained. In the meantime both companies only need to service a limited no. of outlets who effectively become main dealers tied to policies controlled by Fender. Fining American companies is an interesting policy, I wonder if Mr Trump knows about it? If only there were some sort of Europe wide trading association we could be part of. 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geek99 Posted January 22, 2020 Share Posted January 22, 2020 (edited) But that would give fender the chance to do it all over Europe and get away with it for decades with no action at all taken at a trading bloc level - hang on, that happened ... Edited January 22, 2020 by Geek99 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miles'tone Posted January 22, 2020 Share Posted January 22, 2020 I'd never buy a new Fender anyway. Used every time for me. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cuzzie Posted January 22, 2020 Share Posted January 22, 2020 Worst kept secret finally out 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merello Posted January 22, 2020 Share Posted January 22, 2020 When I asked the sales assistant if I could get a discount on a fender bass in January...”everyone knows they don’t let us!” 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul_c2 Posted January 23, 2020 Share Posted January 23, 2020 Personally amazed a company would be stupid enough to do it. It can't be just one rogue employee - what were the others thinking? Just go along with the illegal idea? Reminds me of the VW emissions scandal. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pseudonym Posted January 23, 2020 Share Posted January 23, 2020 5 hours ago, paul_c2 said: Personally amazed a company would be stupid enough to do it. It can't be just one rogue employee - what were the others thinking? Just go along with the illegal idea? They're real outlaws, these rock 'n' roll hooligans. You'd never get this kind of misconduct from the Stradivari. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FinnDave Posted January 23, 2020 Share Posted January 23, 2020 55 minutes ago, Pseudonym said: They're real outlaws, these rock 'n' roll hooligans. You'd never get this kind of misconduct from the Stradivari. Nonsense, they're on the fiddle as well 1 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacDaddy Posted January 23, 2020 Share Posted January 23, 2020 Are Bono and The Edge still on the Fender board? How could they let this happen? Will they have to cough up? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monkey Steve Posted January 23, 2020 Share Posted January 23, 2020 didn't we get into this on another thread a while back? Maybe not Fender? The defence offered was that as a manufacturer it makes little difference to them because they get the wholesale price no matter what and actually letting sellers drop the price means more sales for them, but they were trying to maintain minimum prices offered on line so that they were comparable to what bricks and mortar shops would have to charge because of their overheads Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lfalex v1.1 Posted January 23, 2020 Share Posted January 23, 2020 In every iteration of this news I've read, it only mentions "guitars" Does this mean we, as bassists, are exempt from Fender's retail price maintenance? No? Thought not.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Low End Bee Posted January 23, 2020 Share Posted January 23, 2020 (edited) On the Gov website https://www.gov.uk/government/news/guitar-maker-fined-4-5m-for-illegally-preventing-price-discounts They got a discount on the fine too... They were also fined £25,000 for hiding notebooks in their East Grinstead head office according to the Guardian which may be the most Reggie Perrin Grot industries thing ever. Edited January 23, 2020 by Low End Bee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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