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Rolla, ND | Purchase a bit from a whole bunch of dealers, let Monsanto sort it out. If they want to create bad feelings with their dealers well so be it, why should they treat dealers any different than they do customers?
And it doesn't matter much if it sounds like price fixing to me. What does it sound like to your Attorney General? That's a guy that has to keep you happy to get elected. I'd talk to him about it.
If the dealers split the commission I think that would stand up. But if it actually costs a dealer money to sell product to you, I doubt if that would. But the way business in this country has poured money into Attorney General races to try and get people into office that you can bet won't do their job, you never know.
I know Illinois lets the manufacturers set retail prices, but I'm not sure if Illinois would let a manufacturer tell Kmart that they sold to a Walmart customer and that Kmart owes the retail margin to Walmart.
It's kind of an interesting notion what they are doing with the seed. Seems to me they are actually kind of establishing that dealers have a property right concerning the commission on seed. I'm not so sure a seed company if they thought about it would want to go down that path.
Any smart dealer that wanted to take advantage could go and "give" a bag of seed to noncustomers thereby making them their customer in the company at least for a year.
Anyway here's what the Illinois Attorney General says his duties are:
• Encourages Competition in Business
The Attorney General works to protect consumers and businesses by enforcing antitrust laws and prohibiting unfair methods of competition or activities that restrain trade, including grain elevator mergers, market consolidation and gas, hog and farm chemical prices. The Attorney General also participates in the National Association of Attorneys General’s Livestock Working Group to address hog price concerns.
You never know a few complaints now and an inquiry by the Attorney General might be enough for the company to change it's mind.
Marv
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Is this Price Fixing?
