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The classic way that businesses openly coordinate their pricing is via price matching. Businesses advertise their preferred prices but also promise that they'll

The classic way that businesses openly coordinate their pricing is via price matching. Businesses advertise their preferred prices but also promise that they'll match lower prices from competitors. Competitors see these advertisements and set their own prices to approximately match. The FTC does not consider this type of open signaling to be price fixing: > Q: Our company monitors competitors' ads, and we sometimes offer to match special discounts or sales incentives for consumers. Is this a problem? > A: No. Matching competitors' pricing may be good business, and occurs often in highly competitive markets. Each company is free to set its own prices, and it may charge the same price as its competitors as long as the decision was not based on any agreement or coordination with a competitor. Source: https://www.ftc.gov/advice-guidance/competition-guidance/guide-antitrust-laws/dealings-competitors/price-fixing#:~:text=A:%20No.%20Matching%20competitors'%20pricing https://www.ftc.gov/advice-guidance/competition-guidance/gui...

pixl97 2y ago
Price matching was something that really worked in the past, again in the days before mass digitization and cheap storage/printing. Add in there are only a few major retailers left, it becomes easy to make a product for each of them. CostCow will have product 0ICU812a WalWart will have product 0ICU812b Then they don't have to actually price match because they are "different products"
- codedokode 2y ago
  Online stores seem to match prices; when I google for some electronic equipment (like headphones or MIDI controllers), many stores have almost equal prices for the same item. Of course there is a chance that all they are owned by the same entity, but it is not very plausible.
  - willcipriano 2y ago
    That's probably the MSRP for the item. (https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/manufacturers-suggested-retail-price-msrp.asp https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/manufacturers-suggested...)
bobthepanda 2y ago
that's not really price fixing in so much that price matching in this manner is known to lead to a race to the bottom. this is very different from, "leasing agent, set this high price or get fired by your employer."
sleepybrett 2y ago
The rub is that if store and store b got together and negotiated a price they would stick to and not try to undercut each other, that's price fixing, and that is what realpage is doing on a MASSIVE scale. 'Cartel/Corporate' owners own ~70% of the units in Seattle. 11 total companies (big names you should know like gray star and equity residential), to the one they all use realpage. That's 70% of the market price fixed, MINIMUM.
- throwaway2037 2y ago
  Before your second paragraph: I Googled about it and found this ProPublica story: https://www.propublica.org/article/yieldstar-rent-increase-realpage-rent https://www.propublica.org/article/yieldstar-rent-increase-r... The exact quote: > In one neighborhood in Seattle, ProPublica found, 70% of apartments were overseen by just 10 property managers, every single one of which used pricing software sold by RealPage. To be clear, that is "one neighborhood" in Seattle. Your second paragraph makes it seem like all of Seattle. To be clear, in neighborhoods with lots of new high rise buildings, this pattern seems normal to me: About 10 companies (or less) do most of the property management.
  - sleepybrett 2y ago
    That neighborhood is the neighborhood amazon is in South Lake Union. But as far as I can tell every corporate building in town uses them which is a wild amount of buildings.

pixl97 2y ago

Price matching was something that really worked in the past, again in the days before mass digitization and cheap storage/printing. Add in there are only a few major retailers left, it becomes easy to make a product for each of them. CostCow will have product 0ICU812a WalWart will have product 0ICU812b Then they don't have to actually price match because they are "different products"

codedokode 2y ago
Online stores seem to match prices; when I google for some electronic equipment (like headphones or MIDI controllers), many stores have almost equal prices for the same item. Of course there is a chance that all they are owned by the same entity, but it is not very plausible.
- willcipriano 2y ago
  That's probably the MSRP for the item. (https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/manufacturers-suggested-retail-price-msrp.asp https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/manufacturers-suggested...)

bobthepanda 2y ago

that's not really price fixing in so much that price matching in this manner is known to lead to a race to the bottom. this is very different from, "leasing agent, set this high price or get fired by your employer."

sleepybrett 2y ago

The rub is that if store and store b got together and negotiated a price they would stick to and not try to undercut each other, that's price fixing, and that is what realpage is doing on a MASSIVE scale. 'Cartel/Corporate' owners own ~70% of the units in Seattle. 11 total companies (big names you should know like gray star and equity residential), to the one they all use realpage. That's 70% of the market price fixed, MINIMUM.

throwaway2037 2y ago
Before your second paragraph: I Googled about it and found this ProPublica story: https://www.propublica.org/article/yieldstar-rent-increase-realpage-rent https://www.propublica.org/article/yieldstar-rent-increase-r... The exact quote: > In one neighborhood in Seattle, ProPublica found, 70% of apartments were overseen by just 10 property managers, every single one of which used pricing software sold by RealPage. To be clear, that is "one neighborhood" in Seattle. Your second paragraph makes it seem like all of Seattle. To be clear, in neighborhoods with lots of new high rise buildings, this pattern seems normal to me: About 10 companies (or less) do most of the property management.
- sleepybrett 2y ago
  That neighborhood is the neighborhood amazon is in South Lake Union. But as far as I can tell every corporate building in town uses them which is a wild amount of buildings.