Re: Re: Price Discrimination on Internet

[Bill Lear <rael@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On Monday, May 27, 2002 at 08:54:58 (-0700) Michael Perelman writes:
>Eric, I'm not sure that the Internet will do much to empower consumers
>relative to sellers since it allows sellers to monitor each other as well
>as consumers. ...

As someone who participated in designing and building very powerful,
general-purpose consumer product comparison and purchasing software
for the Internet, I can tell you that the very last thing
manufacturers and distributors want is a powerful piece of software
that allows easy side-by-side feature and, crucially, price comparison
of numerous brands.  The "free market" is rightly seen by those in it
as an arena better avoided.


Bill