Kanttekeningen
Author
The anti-resale price maintenance (r.p.m.) bill: asset or liability for the British co-operative movement. - The British co-operative movement has been an opponent of r.p.m. for the start of this practice. The leaders of the movement have on several occasions – for instance during the Labour-government of 1945-’51 - insisted on the adoption of an anti-r.p.m. legislation. In 1948 a Monopolies Commission was created for the investigation of all monopolist conventions and in 1956 registration and submission of any non-bilateral r.p.m. agreement to the jurisdiction of a Restrictive Practices Court was imposed. These measures secured the termination of many restrictive agreement, but ways of circumvening the Act of 1956 were soon discovered. In January 1964 Mr. Stonehouse, a member of the parliamentary co-operative group introduced a new anti-r. p.m. bill. Mr. Heath, President of the Board of Trade had the bill rejected, but introduced himself a new one with the same purpose, namely making collective or individual enforcement of r.p.m. impossible. The official policy of the Co-operative Union against r.p.m. has not been accepted without question by everyone in the movement. Some managers of co-operatives wish r.p.m. could be maintained, for they consider it as a shield against the aggressive competition of supermarkets. Perhaps some co-operatives in marginal trading position will succumb due to the strengthening of competition. For the movement as a whole, the abolition of r.p.m. may have benificial effects through increasing the turnover of the co-operative wholesale societies and imposing fusion on the small local co-operatives. If Mr Heath’s bill leads to the abolition of exclusive dealer systems it will become possible for co-operatives to enter branches of trade from which they were nearly excluded till now. This, however, can only be realized if the necessary specialists and capital resources are found. The degree to which co-operatives can master their managerial and financial problems will probably determine the final impact of r.p.m. on co-operative trade
Keywords:
How to Cite: Vandewalle, G. (1964) “De wet tegen de verticale prijsbinding: winst- of verliespost voor de Britse coöperatieve beweging?”, Tijdschrift voor Sociale Wetenschappen. 9(2). doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/tvsw.95699