Would it be legally significantly frowned upon if one were to approach peers in similar buying companies to ask for an indication of pricing those companies are paying their suppliers for specific services?

In essence trying to get a handle on whether the rates we are paying are competitive….

Suppliers maintain that we pay on the low side.

“Hi, Mr [supplier] this is Benz from [your competitor], can you confirm the price of [product x] for me? The boss has lost the price list.”

Generally more frowned on when it comes to selling prices, but equally stitching up the supplier market is arguably anti-competitive.

Sadly, now you’ve revealed it in public, you’ve probably just undone all of that (as a quick IP check would tell anyone who you are and, ergo, who you work for..!).

How many years in the clink do you want? I am not an expert in the anti-competition laws, probably due another online course at work, but this falls foul of the law IIRC. That said OMITHN is a lawyer and he seems more circumspect.

The reason for my question is that I believed it was a big no no even asking for prices in range of x to y and hence was v uncomfortable with considering this as an option.

However another interpretation was that if range of prices then not such a big deal.

So, knowing a couple of legal bods frequented then why not ask….

Cartel.

Ignoring legalities, why on earth would your competitor want to tell you this?

Are you ‘new’ in the job/life?

benz – Member
Would it be legally significantly frowned upon if one were to approach peers in similar buying companies to ask for an indication of pricing those companies are paying their suppliers for specific services?

Chapter One infringement if they talk to you. They’ll hang up, or talk to you then whistle blow (they then get a warning you get a up to 10% group trunover fine).

Suppliers maintain that we pay on the low side

why do you want to pay them more?
are they ever going to say you are paying too much?

I’m sure your competitors would be happy to help…they’d love to work on reducing your overheads and increase your profits.

After all, in Business 101 they teach to make sure you competitors are getting a good deal in their supply chain.

Not legal.

But there’s nothing to stop you calling your supplier’s competitors and getting a quote for the same so you can judge whether you really are paying market rates, above or below.

Now this is as far from my area of expertise as I am likely to comment on, but surely you just need basic haggling skills? You say we’ll pay X, they say no, you either walk or pay more?

There are a few ways around this:

1. Employ someone who used to work for your supplier.
2. Employ someone who used to buy for a competitor.
3. Track backwards from everyone else’s likely costs, prices and published figures. You can get suppliers to give general retail price audit info AFAIK.
4. Ring up all your suppliers and say “We’re ordering 20% more clobber than we did 5 years ago, you must be making a nice living out of us. Drop your prices and spread the wealth.”
5. If you can’t do 4, consolidate your supply base so that you are more important to fewer suppliers, then do 4…

I’m not a lawyer.

for sellers to agree or ‘tip the wink’ on pricing structure or to set resale prices, its strictly, hugely forbidden,

I wouldn’t have thought there would be any problem with buyers discussing with each other what they were paying to a particular supplier.

I wouldn’t have thought there would be any problem with buyers discussing with each other what they were paying to a particular supplier.

if it distorts the pricing within a market it’s a Chapter One issue

it’s implicit that discussing prices and how much you pay will distort price competition

In terms of stuff you could get into trouble for at work, it’s relatively serious (I’m joking about the “relatively” part), therefore I would advise either not doing it, or having a 12 minute chat with a competition lawyer (email me if you like, I’ll send you a few numbers) so that they can tell you not to do it 🙂