price maintenance a supplier's attempt to control the prices charged by its channel members for the supplier's products is typically referred as price maintenance or fair trade. the supplier, in effect, dictates the prices charged by channel members to their customers. thus, prices at which products are sold by channel members are not based on the discretion of the channel members in response to market forces, but rather on the requirements of the supplier. Such price maintenance arrangements can help manufacturer gain greater control over the distribution of their products.
strangely enough, this type of anticompetitive price fixing, which is really what such practices amount to,was exempted from federal antitrust legislation through passage of the Miller-Tydings Act in 1937 and the McGuire Act in 1952. These acts exempted retail price fixing by manufacturers in states that permitted vertical pricing arrangements between manufacturers and retailers.