Herman Miller & the NY Attorney General  

Herman miller says retailers can't advertise an Aeron chair for less than
$949. If they do, they'll penalize their retailers by cutting their shipments.
Punishing your retailers like this, is against the law.
Eliot Spitzer started the investigation in 2003..... yes Eliot Spitzer.
http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/03/herman_miller_states_settle_...

This is a good thing t...
This is a good thing this has happened to long with to many products ,
It was he who has the gold makes the golden rule, well the golden rule just became less golden, sorry Herman miller that you had to get slapped in the Ass to make the example, other products will soon follow.

Thanks for the info
because the high-end furniture business is one of the most price fixed businesses around.
Herman Miller, Knoll, Cassina, Fritz Hansen, Artek, Vitra and any other companies of any of the "good stuff" controls the price the distributors and dealers are allowed to sell their items for.
I do wish these companies would have sales promotions, other than Herman Miller and Knoll's measley 10% sale each spring for three weeks.

there is a original ...
there is a original
saarine kanagroo chair from Knoll on ebay the seller told me she has a 1100. reserve on it.
i know you love that chair
is that a good
price? if you could get it for that? It needs to be recovered, that would cost around 500 bucks even for me with fabric,

if you were to turn this on i...
if you were to turn this on its head and had a designer or company who wanted to ensure its products were affordable (as Starck once tried to do, I think) and demanded its retailers sold at as low a possible a price would a judgement like this prevent them form doing so?
I've no head for business but would hate to see something that was designed to be affordable taken up by a predatory retailer and marked up to the point where the original good intentions were wrecked.

It may be against the law, but there's NOTHING unethical about it
I'll preface this by saying that I know nothing more about this case than what's been written here.
The flipside of Herman Miller's "punishing retailers" (for advertising lower-than-recommended retail price) is that they're protecting their smaller retailers, who're unable to compete with those prices.
What's more, they've got an image to protect, and probably would rather these popular chairs aren't the object of a price war. But, WHATEVER their reasons, the upshot is that they'd rather not sell to retailers who advertise discounts.
Retailers who don't like it have the option of not ordering the chairs. Who's been harmed?

Here in America it is...
Here in America it is called price fixing, tons of case law going back to Ford and GM and lots of the cereal companies all out of Michigan for some reason.
Here in America we are for free trade, free markets, so this is one of the prices we pay, It is not a about a great chair being discounted to 2000 bucks when the store down the street sells it for 3500. it is about the retailers option to sell for 2000 bucks, and not being told that you have to sell it for 3500. or you are off our radar,
You all are smart enough to know that is what is going to happen, no chairs for you !!!!! we are out of supply ...... just like the soup Nazi on Sinefeld says No Soup for you!!!!!!!

Copied verbatim from Wikipedia:
"Price fixing is an agreement between business competitors to sell the same product or service at the same price. In general, it is an agreement intended to ultimately push the price of a product as high as possible, leading to profits for all the sellers. Price-fixing can also involve any agreement to fix, peg, discount or stabilize prices. The principal feature is any agreement on price, whether express or implied. For the buyer, meanwhile, the practice results in a phenomenon similar to price gouging."
From what I gather, Herman Miller merely requests that retailers not advertise discounted prices. How do you construe this as "price fixing", here in America?

.
The US economy is not so healthy right now, for all its laissex faire idealism (when it suits).
A good dose of European regulation might have saved a lot of trouble.

Okay, so the government...
Okay, so the government needs to "regulate" Herman Miller, because HM has the audacity to impose certain terms on how their products are sold, even though retailers enter into this agreement voluntarily.
You're right. Without government intervention all hell would break loose. Chaos.

that is really the correct ...
that is really the correct form of price fixing,
But,
any retailer that gives a msrp is not allowed to hold back cause one wants to discount, they can choose not to do business, with the Vendor in the future and i think that was what Herman miller was saying,
Price fixing in the purest form has existed for a very long time,
when Niemans calls Macys and says we are selling the chair for 2500 we think it it is in your best interest to sell it for that, when the manufacture gets involved and says no chairs for either of you Bloomingdales is gonna sell it for 3000. with no discount , that is when the problem comes in.

You're simply parroting the law
"But, any retailer that gives a msrp is not allowed to hold back cause one wants to discount"
Now, tell me WHY it's unethical for a manufacturer to not sell to a retailer who refuses to abide by their (the manufacturer's) terms. Why? Who's harmed?

.
*no comment* desperate to point out a few things about the US economy and what its responsible for...but it is off topic and I suspect I'd get lynched.

Passive aggressive
and off-topic.