---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment On Monday, April 11, 2005, at 11:54 AM, Wimblees@aol.com wrote: > =46rom what I remembered, what got the Twin Cities chapter in trouble=20= > was that they actually made a motion, and voted, to charge a specific=20= > price, or a minimum price, for tuning. That, I think is what got them=20= > in trouble. Although we should abide by the Antitrust Guidelines, some=20= > of them are pretty far out. I don't think there is anything wrong with=20= > discussing how much we charger for particular things, as long as we=20 > don't make any kind of statement along the lines of "let's all do=20 > that". I will probably be told that that is not right either, but=20 > that's my story, and I'm sticking to it. > =A0 > Wim > According to the article, "A Tale of Two Cities", by Dennis Kurk, RPT,=20= PTJ, Nov 1995, p 57, what happened was that one member, UNBEKNOWNST TO=20= THE CHAPTER, complained verbally to the owner of a local piano=20 dealership which was advertising very low tuning rates. The dealer=20 promptly filed a complaint to the State Of Minnesota Attorney General's=20= office, and the Twin Cities Chapter was in trouble. Even though the=20 Attorney General's office eventually decided against punitive action=20 (for the reason it was not in the interests of either party), the=20 chapter had had to hire a lawyer out of chapter funds, wiping out the=20 chapter financially. The lawyer advised them the following, according=20= to the article: "...even though it might be clear to us that our chapter had never=20 officially practiced a policy of setting uniform fees, enough=20 discussion on the subject of prices had taken place to warrant legal=20 action against us." Mr. Kurk continues, "We did not know it at the=20 time, but an individual convicted of a criminal violation of the=20 Sherman Anti-Trust Act could be fined as much as $100,000.00, and=20 imprisoned for up to three years. That means each chapter member." According to the article, the Federal Government has brought action=20 against other similar organizations, so the PTG has to be extremely=20 careful, and our members are supposed to agree not to discuss fees,=20 among a number of other things. Jeff Tanner, RPT School Of Music University of South Carolina= ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 2284 bytes Desc: not available Url : https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/caut.php/attachments/0b/70/8a/b8/attachment.bin ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--
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