Was the fix in on your breastpump?

Did you buy your Pump in Style at Babies R Us?  If so, you might be interested in this Time Magazine article on allegations of a price fixing on items including Medela pumps:

[Darcy Trzupek, a mother], an experienced coupon clipper and Web-browsing bargain hunter, searched far and wide for a deal on the Medela [Pump in Style}. But she says she noticed something odd: the pump was listed at $300 everywhere she looked. For five months, she held out for a discount. Nothing. Finally, a week before going into labor, Trzupek gave in and shelled out $300 for the pump at Babies "R" Us (BRU), the retail outlet that parent company Toys "R" Us started more than a decade ago...

But was that breast pump part of a widespread price-fixing conspiracy that protected the profits of Babies "R" Us, the country's dominant big-box baby retailer? According to a federal judge, it appears that could be the case. On July 15, the U.S. District Court in Philadelphia granted class-action status to a complaint that Babies "R" Us coerced manufacturers of high-end strollers, car seats, high chairs, strap carriers and breast pumps into preventing Internet retailers from discounting their products.

The dirty deal, according to the suit, was simple. From 2001 to 2006, Babies "R" Us told companies like Medela that they had to enforce resale-price maintenance — i.e., tell the Web retailers, who can more easily discount products since they avoid brick-and-mortar costs, to sell your products at X, or you'll cut off the supply. If they resisted, Babies "R" Us threatened to cut off the manufacturers, according to the suit, and refuse to sell their products in Babies "R" Us stores. Since Babies "R" Us sold 30% to 50% of these companies' products, Medela, which is based in Switzerland, and other brands like BabyBjörn, the Swedish strapmaker, and Maclaren, the strollermaker based in the U.K., had no real choice but to go along.

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