GB,
re: So at what level do you think volume discounts become unfair trading?.
They don't. You can offer any volume discount you want, as long as you are consistent. Where you can get in hot water is if you offer a lower volume account a better discount than a higher volume account. Say that OEM XYZ was exclusive Intel, but was smaller than account ABC. If Intel offered XYZ deeper discounts, that would be a violation.
In practice, everyone keeps their contracts very confidential. The vendor (Intel or AMD) may have very different deals with every OEM, depending on their needs. Some want immediate shipping while others will give extended lead times, some want very long extended payment terms while other virtually pay cash, some want extra advertising dollars, some may want higher prices with large quarterly rebates, some want a "special corporate support allowance" for any number of reasons. All these discounts and terms have different values, and they are not easily defined, but the vendor will try to build them into the price to accomplish a level playing field. Just figuring the net net price, for comparison purposes, can be a challenge for the most competent accountant.
So it's very hard to police, harder to enforce, fair trade practices. Most suppliers try hard to be fair, it doesn't always work out. From personal experience, the oldest and most loyal customers sometimes ended up with the highest price.
John |
