Showrooming

[vnsplshr]

A local shop owner posted a mini rant on what he called showrooming. He said that people come into his shop, wander the sales floor shopping, when what he really says they're doing is photographing his wares with their phones, to buy online for less

Comments

[root_fu]

Sounds like a job for...antitrust laws...?

Competition law, or antitrust law, has three main elements:

prohibiting agreements or practices that restrict free trading and competition between business. This includes in particular the repression of free trade caused by cartels.

banning abusive behavior by a firm dominating a market, or anti-competitive practices that tend to lead to such a dominant position. Practices controlled in this way may include predatory pricing, tying, price gouging, refusal to deal, and many others.

supervising the mergers and acquisitions of large corporations, including some joint ventures. Transactions that are considered to threaten the competitive process can be prohibited altogether, or approved subject to "remedies" such as an obligation to divest part of the merged business or to offer licenses or access to facilities to enable other businesses to continue competing.