The US FTC (Fair Trade Commission) has ordered Samsung to stop unfair business practices in the country. The antitrust regulator said that Samsung can't demand retailers to offer it retail prices for their products. The company reportedly did so for six years before it faced a probe from the agency.
It was reported that Samsung asked its agencies and authorized retailers to provide it with the retail prices of its products. It did so from January 2017 through September 2023 before a regulatory probe was initiated against the company. The company obtained prices of 15,389 products from 159 agents in the USA as of 2020. These products included refrigerators and washing machines.
Samsung (or any other company) can't demand that their retailers offer them retail prices as that information is a trade secret. Samsung reportedly used that retail price information to evaluate the performance of its agents and grant certain incentives. The US FTC will continue to monitor the situation and see that Samsung doesn't meddle with retailers.
An FTC official said, “Such a practice constitutes an interference of business operations that violates the country's fairness of franchise transactions act. Information on sales margins is deemed confidential as it could affect contract terms and conditions between the two sides.”
