MAP policies are legal in the US as long as they only govern advertised prices and not actual selling prices. A retailer can offer a cheaper price in store or once a product is added to an online shopping cart, as long as the advertised price isn’t below the agreed MAP level.
In Europe and the UK, MAP policies are illegal based on competition laws that are more favorable towards retailers and resellers than brands. Competition laws stipulate that there be free pricing by everyone competing in a market. Pricing is taken out of the control of manufacturers and is set by the free market. Manufacturers caught trying to set and enforce MAP pricing in the EU can face stiff fines and penalties.
This article was by Joe Kovacs, co-founder of Brand Guarde, an agency specializing in helping companies solve challenges with unauthorized resellers, MAP compliance and distribution control on third-party marketplaces like Amazon.
Brand Guarde has also developed Seller Insight, a MAP monitoring and seller tracking tool to help companies better manage their pricing on Amazon.
View Top Amazon Seller Tools
(function(d,u,ac){var s=d.createElement('script');s.type='text/javascript';s.src='https://a.omappapi.com/app/js/api.min.js';s.async=true;s.dataset.user=u;s.dataset.campaign=ac;d.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(s);})(document,69231,'cjilndgn5uvgknptyscl');