Resmed internet price increase is illegal

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Jun 23, 2006 12:22 pm

As an international trade attorney let me say this:

At face value by what was presented here in the original post, what Resmed is attempting to do is highly illegal. You cannot just raise your wholesale distributor price by 40% because one entity is under-pricing others. This goes against all US anti-monopoly and open market laws. It is also clearly a case of attemtping to price fix your market. Resmed needs to raise their distributor prices by 40% across the board for this to be legal. OR, they could simply refuse to sell to online distributors altogether. Simply raising one's product price in sort of a "tariff type tax" venue, to ensure evenly inflated distributed pricing is not a legal business practice in the US. I'm sure Resmed has attorneys and will likely reword the language in their proposal. If Resmed moves forward in this manor, you can count on a suit being filled, probably class-action, by the likes of folks such as yourselves. Rightly fully so in my opinion.

The way I see it, Resmed has three options:

1. Discontinue sales to internet distributors.
2. Raise it's distribution pricing across the board to all retail sales reps.
3. Lobby to change laws disallowing the sale of this medical device except by DMEs. (something I do not agree with, but at least would be legal)

What Resmed is doing is trying to have their cake and eat it to. Make no mistake about it, they WANT to keep the large share of internet sales market, but are caving to the pressure of the DMEs. This is pure, unadulterated, price fixing!

GoofyUT · Post by **GoofyUT** » Fri Jun 23, 2006 12:29 pm

GREAT point!

Thanks so much for bringing it up, especially here.

Chuck

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Jun 23, 2006 12:38 pm

Most welcome lawyer guest. How should we get together to prevent this? Is it better done by the customers themselves or by the online dealers having this forced on them?

oldgearhead · Post by **oldgearhead** » Fri Jun 23, 2006 12:51 pm

Is there any way to tell if 'Guest' lawyer is Rastaman?

Rastaman · Post by **Rastaman** » Fri Jun 23, 2006 1:02 pm

I appreciate the compliment (Trade Lawyer?) but you will NEVER catch me posting as a guest. My systems at work and home log me in automatically. No one else uses my computers but me.

I'm sure you didn't mean it as a compliment but that's how I'll take it.

I'm an auto insurance agent, not a lawyer.

winknblinknnod · Post by **winknblinknnod** » Fri Jun 23, 2006 1:04 pm

Hum, I've worked for attorneys for 20 years and I've never seen one confuse "manner" with "manor"...

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Jun 23, 2006 1:11 pm

oldgearhead wrote:Is there any way to tell if 'Guest' lawyer is Rastaman?

Maybe one of Respironic's attorneys?

winknblinknnod wrote:Hum, I've worked for attorneys for 20 years and I've never seen one confuse "manner" with "manor"...

An attorney that doesn't have a good command of the English language?
Hmmmmm Maybe it's one of our elected officials?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Jun 23, 2006 1:16 pm

Are you guys kidding? Attorneys are notorious for misspelled words. They almost never have to write anything themselves.

Bottom line is his point. Attorney or not, it is a valid point. Is it not?

You all want to pay much more for your equipment? Then keep up the great attitudes you all have here. Whether I pay $700 or $1000 for my Remstar is no skin off my back, but for the average Joe, $300 is a lot of $

Average Joe · Post by **Average Joe** » Fri Jun 23, 2006 1:19 pm

.....but for the average Joe, $300 is a lot of $

NO KIDDING!!!

A J

Rastaman · Post by **Rastaman** » Fri Jun 23, 2006 1:32 pm

I will not stop until we all have to pay $5,000 per machine! J/K.

Then we'll all think we're getting high quality machines. You know how it is.....if you just give something expensive to someone they kind've take it for granted usually. It's not as important as something they had to pay alot for. <Snicker>

Wulfman · Post by **Wulfman** » Fri Jun 23, 2006 1:51 pm

Can you imagine what the computer manufacturers would experience if they tried that? I remember very vividly the prices of the PC XT's thru the 386's selling from $3500 to over $5000. Now they're a fraction of that, with lots more "poop" in them.
Like I said, if these manufacturers think they can get away with raising the prices in this era of the "Walmart falling prices", I don't think they'll get very far. And, I agree that it is more than likely illegal to single out one particular segment of the sales chain on which to raise prices/costs.

Den

Rastaman · Post by **Rastaman** » Fri Jun 23, 2006 1:56 pm

Release the hounds!

WindFlyer · Post by **WindFlyer** » Fri Jun 23, 2006 1:57 pm

I've noticed a huge differential in prices between the DME and online sellers from the word go when I started CPAP back in 2004. Also, like I mentioned in another thread on a similar issue, it seems like my insurance co. doesn't help me at all since my out-of-pocket is still more than what I would pay myself getting supplies from an online seller.

I've thought about suggesting that some of us form a consortium to push for more even pricing across the board, but I am not knowledgeable enough about the facts. Just from my observations, though, it seems to me that the insurance co's and DME's are laughing all the way to the bank.

Rastaman · Post by **Rastaman** » Fri Jun 23, 2006 2:16 pm

This is an age old argument. We the people don't seem to work together as a whole. We could own the WORLD if we just worked together and trusted one another. But who's going to do that. Everyone thinks they know better than the next guy/gal.

I've been saying the whole idea of prices going up up up all the time can be controlled by the consumer IF we're smart about it. But just try and get 10 people to agree on any one thing and then you start to see why this doesn't work very well. The corporations have us by the boo-boo and they know it.

I'll bring it to another level for you. Just a personal comparison. I don't have cable currently. Why? Because it would cost me like $80 a month or so to have it and when I do have it I only watch maybe maybe maybe 5 to 10 channels total. 300 doesn't impress me. I just want what I'm using but they don't sell a package like that. In fact, they've done nothing but raise the price of standard cable to near digital cable prices. So guess what? They got my money for years for both Road Runner and cable (Timewarner Cable) but not anymore. I bought two antennas and have been happy watching local stations ever since. I also got a Netflix subscription and so we get to watch movies and tv shows and concerts all the time anyway.

Another example. My friend didn't want to get high speed internet until the price reached $20 per month. Road Runner costs atleast $50 to $60 a month plus your cable bill. And more if you don't have cable. One day SBC offered Yahoo DSL for $20 a month and he bought it. So did I. We've been stellar happy ever since. They finally met our price point.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Jun 23, 2006 2:52 pm

It's all BS from start to finish anyhow. These Cpap machines are produced in 3rd world countries for about $25 each! We pay $$$$$$ thousands and jump through hoop after hoop dishing out $ all along the way to get out mini air compressors as it is! Pure, unconditional BS! It's like buying a home, ten people get in line with their stinking hands out to take your $ before you get to move in. Same thing here.

In my opinion, if you think your have apnea you probably do. So, you should be able to directly buy a Cpap auto with Cflex with no prescription at all! Simple, the machines work automatically these days, just have to experiment to find the right mask and off you go. If you go through a DME, you get to have a worthless sleep study. (buy a video camera and tape yourself, it will tell the same thing) lousy service, still end up experimenting until you get it right and pay 3-4 times the price.

This CPAP DME insurance, sleep study is probably the biggest fraud, rip-off con-man racket ever done in world history regarding medical treatment.

It's a fricken $25 compressor for Christ sake! What you do with it after that is up to you!

Mask

Resmed internet price increase is illegal

Resmed internet price increase is illegal

Thanks!