Antitrust experts from the government, legal and academic communities are joining retailers and consumer advocates in Washington, D.C. on Thursday to discuss the anti-consumer effect that newly legal price-fixing, also known as ‘retail price maintenance’ (RPM), has had on the cost of consumer products.

From 1911 to 2007, antitrust law prohibited manufacturers from punishing retailers for selling at discounted prices. However, last year’s Leegin Supreme Court ruling overturned that law. On Thursday, retailers and consumer advocates, including eBay and the Consumer Federation of America will provide an outline of how the Leegin Supreme Court case has affected retailers and consumers. Policymakers and policy experts including Federal Trade Commission Commissioner Pamela Jones Harbour will discuss possible courses of action to address the negative impact of price fixing.

I’ll be covering the event live, in-person on the eBay Ink Twitter feed: http://twitter.com/ebayinkblog beginning at 9am ET this Thursday, December 4. I’ll also include any and all materials that come out of the event in an Ink post later that day.

For more information about Thursday’s event, and the American Antitrust Institute in general, be sure to check out http://www.antitrustinstitute.org/.

Cheers,
RBH