In today's competitive market retailers often compete for sales with one-another solely ON the price of specific products. From a consumer prospective this is a great thing because lower is better. As a consumer you have a choice of where you do your shopping and chances are the majority of your time you will go to the business that supplies a lower price. The ability of businesses to decide ON an asking price for select goods and services is what makes our free market so successful. With the addition of the Internet the marketplace has grown tremendously and now there are a multitude of companies offering the exact same product and the only difference is the prices. The trouble arises when a Manufacture discovers that a merchant is selling their goods for a price lower than what the Manufacture defines as the product's Minimum Advertised Price (or M.A.P.)

The problems begin to arise when you look at it from a manufacturer's perspective. The manufacturer knows exactly how much their product costs to produce and they offer a suggested Minimum Advertised Price (M.A.P. ) for their retailers to base their pricing decisions ON. Manufacturers often are upset at prices set lower than the M.A.P price because in the Manufacture's mind this could potentially lead people to believe that because of the lower price and their product is inferior.

Although the Manufacturer is allowed to determine the M.A.P prices, the dealers and retailers are under no legal obligation to abide by these prices but often times the Manufacturer will pressure the smaller dealers and retailers by denying them access to products, rebates and discounts. In certain situations it is a David versus Goliath conundrum where the retail merchant wants to offer a product at a lower than M.A.P. Price but is threatened and coerced by the larger Manufacturer. Often times larger retailers who have a relationship with the Manufacture will pressure the Manufacture into enforcing their M.A.P prices ON smaller merchants who may be offering special sale pricings lower than the M.A.P. Price.