I just heard on the radio about a Supreme Court lawsuit that was settled on behalf of an embroiderer who was denied the opportunity to sell NFL gear because of an exclusive arrangement the NFL had with Reebok. This sounds simliar to the restraints American Apparel is trying to accomplish with their anti-trust behavior in that by controlling the distributors then the company at hand can control the final prices for their products. Exclusivity be damned.
American Apparel has it's own problems now, but I feel that the underlying strength of this decision is basis enough to embolden my position that American Apparel is wrong by limited the type of resellers who can resell their blank t-shirts on esoteric conditions that are beyond their control like a requirement that somehow companies can only resell their products if they are printing on them. Yet, American Apparel sells these same products blank through their own retail stores which effectively makes them an exclusive distributor of the product. All of the actions American Apparel has taken to intimidate and force people out of that sort of business has only resulted in higher prices for the consumer at the cash register and is the type of behavior that anti-trust laws are supposed to prohibit. At this point I will resume selling American Apparel t-shirts at the prices that I feel are competitive and if they refuse to sell to me then I will have to forward my case to the relevant type of legal organizations that will hopefully prosecute and limit these unfair business practices that American Apparel has been implementing. I wonder if there are criminal liabilities or only civil liabilities in this type of case?
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