Fender lawsuit

Markedman

Well-known member

hit by class-action lawsuit alleging it overcharged millions of guitarists​

guitar.com - Yesterday
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Fender has been accused of overcharging millions of guitar players for instruments, in a new class-action lawsuit being brought by a UK consumer advocacy group.
The claim comes as a result of a 2020 ruling by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which fined Fender £4.5 million for price fixing, or “preventing online discounting for its guitars.” The CMA’s ruling stated that Fender’s behaviour meant that prospective buyers saw no difference in price as they shopped around for guitars.
At the time, Andrea Coscelli, CMA Chief Executive, said that: “It is absolutely essential that companies do not prevent people from being able to shop around to buy their products at the best possible price. This is especially important for expensive and popular items like guitars, and so Fender’s actions could have had a big impact on customers.”
According to The Times, lawyers for Elisabetta Sciallis, a policy adviser at the consumer group Which?, were the ones to initiate the latest proceedings against Fender Europe and Fender USA.
The class-action suit is rooted in the 2020 ruling,arguing that it means “potentially millions of musicians” who bought guitars between January 2013 and April 2019 paid over the odds. If the suit is successful, those who were found to have paid over the odds, could be entitled to damages.


Is Europe shooting itself in the foot? maybe, just maybe, fender anticipated the fines so they just overcharged and now are paying the fines but still making more money than if they went along with the bullshit? I bet you Leo Fender would’ve told Europe to just fuck off!

Mesa Boogie does not offer discounts. There are some tool companies like festool, they do not offer discounts and when they do have a sale it’s either 5 to 10% off and it’s unannounced.

Are people so privileged that they can demand lower prices and receive it or the fucking minions will fine the company because they won’t sell it for less?

I went to buy two packs of cigarettes and they wanted my license and when the guy went to scan it in and said no no I won’t buy my cigarettes here fuck you I turned around and looked at all the people and said no fucking way I’m not part of this fucking bullshit you motherfuckers you’re fucking ruining the world I’ll go buy my cigarettes somewhere else where they’re not gonna put me into a computer. If the government wants to track me good fucking luck. If they wanna check my social media shit, I’m on rig talk the boogie board my Les Paul and the Marshall forum. I have no Facebook Twitter accounts of shit like that.

So what’s next? Fender has to give away a certain amount of guitars to minorities and displaced freak shows? I’m not kidding either, if they can tell them they have to sell it for less why not just fucking tell them to give guitars away, you have too many. That’s It Period!
 
Here’s the crux of the issue:

“The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority – which issued the fine – said that Fender took part in an illegal practice known as resale price maintenance, adding that it found evidence Fender had on occasion “pressurized retailers to raise their online prices, after being tipped off that they were not toeing the line”.

If Fender did conduct illegal activity, then a class action civil lawsuit over money seems plausible.

Also, for funsies, I can tell you for certain that Mesa Boogie (pre-Gibson) sold product at “C mark” pricing. That is, sold to dealers at 70% of MSRP. So that $1,499 Triaxis back in the day cost wholesale $1,049.30. Dealers just usually didn’t discount them as a general rule.

Fender is an “A mark” brand, meaning they sell to dealers at at least 50% of MSRP, more for bulk purchases or certain items.
 
Sounds like Europe has a law against Minimum Advertised Price (MAP)? I guess they could sell to dealers at the MAP price, that will make it worse for consumers in Europe though. I don’t know the whole story though so…
 
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