Price fixing

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Hi, I've been told that Apple fixes the prices of all its products internationally, I wondered if this also applies to duty free at airports? Can you by Apple products at them, if so are they any cheeper? Thanks

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 13
    hirohiro Posts: 2,663member
    The term price fixing is a legal term meaning illegal covert collusion amongst several vendors to artificially fix inflated prices across a whole market. Not what Apple is doing.



    Apple has agreements with authorized resellers that the resellers will not advertise below a certain cost called the Minimum Advertised Price (MAP). That's why you see most places all advertise within a few $$ of the same price, but offer differing "package deals" to make their particular identical price more appealing.



    MAP is a very widespread accepted practice in retail that supposedly helps protect smaller players from large retailers selling at a loss until all the small players go out of business. As far as Apple is concerned, they always get their wholesale price, what retailers sell at won't affect Apples bottom line directly anyway. So it is pretty much MAP as accepted.
  • Reply 2 of 13
    Okay, thanks for the info, I guess that means that the price will be the same at duty free then.
  • Reply 3 of 13
    In Japan, the price of a Mac is the same nno matter where you buy it. The Apple store and Amazon have the same prices. Occasionally, you will find the iPod for about 5% less than at the Apple Store, but things seem very fixed over here. It is very hard watching people get discounts at Amazon in the US.
  • Reply 4 of 13
    toweltowel Posts: 1,479member
    I don't think I've ever seen electronics at a duty-free shop. The idea is to sell stuff that usually comes with high import or excise taxes - booze, tobacco, etc. I'd be surprised to find even iPods at one, and even more surprised if they were significantly cheaper than retail.
  • Reply 5 of 13
    Okay well thats a shame, looks like I will have to buy my new iPod at full price then!



    Thanks
  • Reply 6 of 13
    tednditedndi Posts: 1,921member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Towel

    I don't think I've ever seen electronics at a duty-free shop. The idea is to sell stuff that usually comes with high import or excise taxes - booze, tobacco, etc. I'd be surprised to find even iPods at one, and even more surprised if they were significantly cheaper than retail.



    I have seen electronics stores in the duty free sections of international airports.
  • Reply 7 of 13
    Mr. Nev, where are you? Because if you are in Europe or the UK then you can buy iPods at the airport in Duty free shops and they will be cheaper, because you dont have to pay VAT. So in UK they are 17.5% cheaper at the aiport, quite a saving.
  • Reply 8 of 13
    Thanks Thereubster, I'm from the UK but right now I'm in Austrailia about to head to Bangkok via Singapore. Will be back in the UK in April, might see if I can stave of buying one until then.
  • Reply 9 of 13
    telomartelomar Posts: 1,804member
    If you buy within 30 days of your departure date you can get the GST refunded otherwise.
  • Reply 10 of 13
    Thanks Telomar, I just looked into it, unfortunately its only 5% so not much of a saving, still better than a kick in the nuts I suppose!
  • Reply 11 of 13
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Hiro

    The term price fixing is a legal term meaning illegal covert collusion amongst several vendors to artificially fix inflated prices across a whole market. Not what Apple is doing.



    Apple has agreements with authorized resellers that the resellers will not advertise below a certain cost called the Minimum Advertised Price (MAP). That's why you see most places all advertise within a few $$ of the same price, but offer differing "package deals" to make their particular identical price more appealing.







    How is the first paragraph different from the second one in practice? Apple agrees with several vendors not to sell below a price... be it inflated or not. That's artificial fixing of price and since you can only buy Apple from Apple if you're a vendor, the price is fixed across the entire market.

    So I don't see how that is not price fixing??
  • Reply 12 of 13
    gene cleangene clean Posts: 3,481member
    It is a type of price-fixing, although a type that gets ignored by the government because of its miniscule impact on the market (in terms of macroeconomics).



    And I don't understand the 'inflated price' bit: prices are not fixed because of them being inflated: in fact, vendors like it when the prices are inflated because they're selling their stuff at prices that do not represent the true value of their products (they're overvalued).



    Price fixing occurs for a couple of reasons, but two of them are the principal reasons:



    1. So they limit choice for the consmer; everywhere you go it's the same price

    2. So there is a floor-price on certain products (mostly apartments)



    One other reason is to put a maximum price on place, but that's sometimes done by governments (e.g. USPS and stamp prices are dictated by the US Government).



    On the other hand, price fixing is not illegal when it comes to government interaction and trading. Case: OPEC. OPEC is a cartel that engages in price-fixing that enables them to sell X gallons for Y price. Sometimes one of the governments that are part of OPEC rebels (Saudi Arabia) but it's a pretty stable cartel that specializes in price-fixing through means of production.
  • Reply 13 of 13
    Mr Nev - if you or someone you know is at university in the UK, you can pick up a discounted ipod from the Apple Higher Education store. Time to make some new friends
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