Freesat price fixing

prowla

Is price fixing still a thing?

I've been looking at getting a Freesat box, but the prices are exactly the same from every retailer:

• Non-recording: £145.00
• 500 GB: £229.99
• 1 TB: £259.99
• 2 TB:£299.99

According to https://www.gov.uk/cartels-price-fixing/types-of-anticompetitive-activity

Price fixing

You must not discuss the prices you’re going to charge your customers with your competitors.

You’ll be breaking the law if you agree with another business:

• to charge the same prices to your customers
• to offer discounts or increase your prices at the same time
• to charge the same fees to intermediaries, for example retailers selling your products

MorningcoffeeIV

Where is your evidence of price fixing?

It looks like the usual RRP approach that applies to millions of products.

It's a mature market where I doubt people are fighting for significant sales volume.

booneruk

I'm not sure it's price fixing, can it be when there are more expensive boxes? (https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=2TB+Freesat&i=electronics&ref=nb_sb_noss_2). Those all seem to be a different manufacturer & model than the 2TB model I'm repeatedly finding at £299. I'd guess that the £299 box is at its RRP.

prowla

MorningcoffeeIV said:

Where is your evidence of price fixing?

It looks like the usual RRP approach that applies to millions of products.

It's a mature market where I doubt people are fighting for significant sales volume.

Maybe my suspicion-o-meter is just twitching because they're all the same price then!

The Freesat ones are the only recording models which work with the Sky Q LNB.

prowla

booneruk said:

I'm not sure it's price fixing, can it be when there are more expensive boxes? (https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=2TB+Freesat&i=electronics&ref=nb_sb_noss_2). Those all seem to be a different manufacturer & model than the 2TB model I'm repeatedly finding at £299. I'd guess that the £299 box is at its RRP.

Hmmm - those Humax and Manhatten ones aren't the same item and they don't have the same functionality, so they're not directly competing products.

The_Unready

The only discount I found when I was looking for a Freesat recordable 2Tb box last month was for a refurbished model, which was £50 cheaper (which I  bought).

sheslookinhot

I thought this recently about a Sony TV I am interested in. Every retailer, about 7, are the exact same price even moving up and down by the same £100/£200.

One retailer told me that Sony dictate the price.

JSmithy45AD

sheslookinhot said:

I thought this recently about a Sony TV I am interested in. Every retailer, about 7, are the exact same price even moving up and down by the same £100/£200.

One retailer told me that Sony dictate the price.

The manufactures set a RRP generally and will sell to retailers at a certain price per unit under that, if the retailers all sell at that price then that's not price fixing.