Fender got fined £4.5m for price fixing.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jan/22/guitar-maker-fender-fined-45m-for-price-fixing-in-uk

Any other companies that need outing?

Isn’t that exactly what Apple do?

And how is Wahoo getting away with it?

Oggles, I agree; what about Wahoo?

Stupid, Absolute load of ********.
If a brand wants to set a RRP then let them. If they want to enforce it then let them.

Otherwise the brand gets devalued by retailers chasing their way to the bottom, and you end up in a situation like the bike trade where smaller shops can’t survive. The CMA is actively hitting the people who are trying their hardest to keep competition up. You set a retail price, you enforce it and people will buy from their local shops where they get a good service and everyone earns a crust. Otherwise you end up with people trying fender guitars in their local, buying online for cheap and the shops, brand, and customer suffer.

Fender should be applauded for trying to protect the product and not jumping on the bandwagon of discounting.

This is not about RRP; it’s resale price maintenance (RPM).
With all due respect Nick, neither your view nor mine matter.
The only issue is legal compliance.
Loads of stuff online, all delivering the same message…..
https://www.pinsentmasons.com/out-law/news/too-many-suppliers-seeking-to-control-resale-prices-ignore-that-it-may-be-unlawful-says-expert
It would appear that Wahoo may be the wrong side of the line.
IANAL.

Anyone who’s been around this marketplace knows only too well that Fender charge a price for a certain type of guitar no matter where you buy it from.

I’m slightly unsure of the CMA’s angle TBH, since most vehicle manufacturers employ similar market support methods to sell their vehicles.

RRP is RRP, you may get more “extras” from dealership to dealership but he RRP is just that, or you loose the franchise.

Lets see the CMA employ similar tactics across the UK’s vehicles dealership network… then I’ll be impressed at why the CMA exist.

Trek do this – when I worked at a Trek dealer you weren’t allowed to advertise a reduced price that you set yourself. Then around August before the next model year’s bikes came out you would get a message from Trek saying what you could reduce the price to.

If you didn’t comply they’d take your dealership rights off you.

This is not about RRP; it’s resale price maintenance (RPM).

Which can amount to the same thing. Is there any Brand of note that doesn’t tell retailers what to sell products for, when to discount and by how much? Bikes, parts, Adidas, Nike, watches, cars, fuel. Thaie are the ones I know about. I’m pretty sure it’s how you protect the value of your brand, from their perspective. The CMA is going to be very busy if they go down that road.
Hell, Rolex do it in the second hand market too.

You set a retail price, you enforce it and people will buy from their local shops where they get a good service and everyone earns a crust. Otherwise you end up with people trying fender guitars in their local, buying online for cheap and the shops, brand, and customer suffer.

If that was really Fender’s overriding objective then I think they could, legitimately, say that to be a Fender dealer you must have bricks and mortar premises, open to the public for trials and provide certain levels of back-up / after-sales for all your customers which puts everyone on a level playing field (they can even vet the musical knowledge/skills of the staff in the shops, have policies around fair pay etc). Of course those sort of deals often come with minimum stock requirements etc too.