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Australian prices! 20-May-2011 At 9:05:03 PM jezza

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>Actually the manufacturer does get more money through a sole distributor
>contract because the distributor pays for the right to be the sole distributor.

That may be true, but doesn't take into account that a single distributor not only has the power to pressure climbing gear retailers with high prices, but also has the power to pressure the climbing gear manufacturer into lower prices.

>However unfortunately given that especially in the climbing market there's
>no remotely dominant manufacturer for any product type, i.e. you don't
>have to buy Black Diamond cams, you could buy Metolious or Wild Country
>or whatever, this can't be treated as a monopoly and hence isn't illegal

What you're saying saying is correct in a legal sense. However I don't feel that it should be this way. I don't agree that, from the perspective of a consumer, one piece of climbing gear is so easily able to be substituted for another. My experience is that, for sporting gear, features and brand are more important factors than price (although price is still an important factor). So, for example, you'll choose your C4s even though Friends might be slightly cheaper. But you mightn't get an Arcteryx harness, 'cause those are double the price of competitors.

In this situation, I would like to see the law changed so that a contract that doesn't allow other distributors (like that between S2S and BD) should be considered anti-competitive.

Also, isn't Black Diamond by far the largest manufacturer of climbing equipment? I don't have any hard evidence of that, just wondering.