Agency pricing and MFNs are like peas and carrots or why the DOJ settlement won’t disallow discounting

Retail price maintenance v. Agency pricing

The retail price maintenance (“RPM”) instituted by five of the big 6 publishers is commonly known as Agency Pricing. It is a pricing model wherein the producer of a widget, like the publisher of a book, gets to control the price. For nearly 100 years, RPM was considered per se illegal which meant if you engaged in it, you received a visit from the DOJ. In 2007, the Supreme Court in a case known as “Leegin” said that the illegality of RPM would be anal...