Free riding and resale price maintenance : Insights from marketing research and practice

Although a topic of considerable interest and debate for nearly 100 years, antitrust understanding of resale price maintenance (RPM) has been informed primarily through theory developed in antitrust economics with limited empirical evidence. Addressing calls for research on RPM and its related practices, the current article draws upon existing academic and practitioner research in marketing to identify relevant insights and findings for understanding the primary justification for RPM—the so-called free rider explanation. Through its examination of research on multi-channel shopping and multi-channel marketing, distribution, retailing, and customer management, the article augments antitrust understanding in important and novel ways. TH E AN T I T R U S T BU L L E T I N: Vol. 55, No. 2/Summer 2010 : 381