Thought folks here might find this interesting:
Nice find, thanks for sharing.
Does that mean we get cheaper Pannys and LG cells? 
I dont think so. Think of all the laptop packs with Samsung cells inside, those cost the same. If you buy tens of thousands, you pay less than 2$ per cell.
I didn’t know Panasonic owned Sanyo.
hopefully we can see the effect soon…price decrease…
I hope they don’t punish us by withholding fancy new batteries like their 4000mAh 18650 they are releasing soon…
Bastards probably used the profits to hire more people and pay for more R&D to make better batteries ... man that pisses me off .
very true, they also probably cut their own salaries to further increase their R&D budget :bigsmile:
Never understood pricing fixing charges.. The market sets the price. If the 'big players' increase the price too far, they create room for a new player to come in and undercut them. Simple as that..
PPtk
it is a failure of market price setting, being collusion to charge higher prices in order to extract more money from consumers
items that require expensive manufacturing facilities cannot be duplicated by a small company starting from scratch, would you be able to build a manufacturing facility to take on intel?
If I read it correct 3 companies conspired to sell batteries at a fixed price.
Has anyone tried to buy on oem battery pack for a laptop ? They are EXPENSIVE.
When multiple big companies agree on a set price for a specific product then they control the prices and this is illegal. LCD panel manufacturers have been busted many times for this. Sure supply and demand does some-what dictate prices, but if several of the largest companies agree to sell at a set price there is no more competition between these companies, and a higher cost is passed onto consumers.
What if the oil companies all got together and said “you know what, lets sell oil at $200 a barrel.” Sure some people might start using less gas or refuse to drive their car, but the end result would be a massive increase in profits for these companies, which is why price fixing is so lucrative (until caught).
The amusing thing is once they are caught and fined, do you think they absorb that cost? Likely not, they are then forced to factor in their legal fees and fines into the cost of future products.
I understand the mechanics behind it.. I just don't believe there is anything wrong with it. A company should be able to decide at what price it wants to sell its wares - even if that means making deals with competitors. Consumers can either buy the wares at that price, or not. The government does it, afterall. Highly inefficient, bloated, and overpriced - but they give us no other options. Competition isn't allowed...
PPtk
the ultimate in price fixing is to set the highest price that maximizes profit and prevents competitors from entering the market, due to factors such as barriers to entry, high upfront costs, proprietary technology or legal protections (patents, non compete clauses, certifications etc)
in essence price fixing is creating something similar to a monopoly, which has many well documented negative effects (and how many positive ones?)
in a monopoly the market is no longer setting a price, or is it?
Why does a company owe anyone positive effects? Companies exist to maximize profit for their employees and shareholders - not to make the world a better, friendlier, happier place. I understand regulating some industries - industries which provide basic necessities like public utilities.. But for convenience items (which batteries most certainly are), why does anyone have the RIGHT to buy them for a certain price?
PPtk
So you would be ok with major utility companies and ISP’s price fixing?
$0.50 Kwhr sound ok? How about basic internet starting at $200/mo?
Utility companies, not so much - but only because competition is specifically forbidden by the government. ISPs with internet accesss? I'm fine with that - No one needs the internet to survive. Companies wouldn't price it that high, though, anyway.. Not enough people would pay that kind of money, and it would actually reduce their profits. I would guess more like $75.
PPtk
Must Have MAP
Where does one draw the line between convenience products and basic necessities?
If the batteries fed an IV that was keeping me alive then its quite the necessity
Lets table that issue because its unsolvable and not relevant
It comes down to what the economy is for, is it meant to elevate a few to godly status while oppressing the majority, or does it exist to benefit everyone?
If its meant to consolidate money and power among a few then i agree with your reasoning.
Making price fixing illegal is an imperfect solution to the tendency towards monopoly type behaviours which eliminate competition and lead to gouging type results, which are a distortion of the free market, making it far less free
Price fixing is not much of a problem in markets where it doesn’t take that much skin to get in the game. For example say the top 10 flashlight companies decided “hey lets all agree not to sell any single XM-L emitter lights at lower than $75.” No one would really care that much, many would simply choose not to buy and wait for a new company to spring up and start selling at a better price.
Larger companies that provide products and services that we use everyday though, this is where the main problem lies with price fixing (energy, communications, food etc.)
Our free market economy is there to sustain and encourage business and trade, if there were not laws to protect it, things would really be bad and there would be many monopoly’s controlling everything.