[TriLUG] OT: Developer Rates

[Destefanis, Pablo]

Wow, this is just unbelievable! So you can get with your mates and check if
you're ripping off someone or losing money on a job?  

I want to believe that the law will be "intelligent" enough to tell the
difference between someone asking around because he's not sure about the
price he should ask from two or more companies (with enough power to control
part of a market) screwing up a lot of people... Mmmmhhhh. I don't know - I
guess I maybe wrong.

Still, I don't see why shouldn't be some guidelines for rates (as you'll
find in many industries). You're not ripping off anyone, actually, you may
be preventing people to be ripped off. The wrong assumption here is that
this person was going to charge LESS than "normal rates", but what if he was
going to charge double? Is he also conspiring to fix prices when his
quesiton results in a lower price for his client?

Maybe the honest thing to do will be telling your customer "hey, you should
send the project to Bangalore, that could save you a lot of money!" ;)



-----Original Message-----
From: trilug-bounces at trilug.org [mailto:trilug-bounces at trilug.org] On Behalf
Of Jim Wright
Sent: Friday, April 23, 2004 7:43 AM
To: Triangle Linux Users Group discussion list
Subject: RE: [TriLUG] OT: Developer Rates

Again, IANAL, but this is where I had read this previously....
>From http://www.hwg.org/resources/faqs/priceFAQ.html ...

"Is it illegal to discuss pricing? 
The short answer: YES (at least in the U.S. where many of our members are).

The U.S. law specifically makes discussion of pricing between competitors
(all or some) a federal offense. According to either Marshall Kragen or
Lewis Rose (both practicing lawyers), several brokers in DC were
successfully prosecuted for simply discussing an increase of fees at a
dinner meeting.

When, where, or how doesn't matter. Any discussion of pricing by a group of
people within the same industry is illegal in the U.S. The feds call it
price fixing."

And this is from a DOJ document at
http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/public/guidelines/primer-ncu.htm

"Price Fixing 

Price fixing is an agreement among competitors to raise, fix, or otherwise
maintain the price at which their goods or services are sold.
It is not necessary that the competitors agree to charge exactly the same
price, or that every competitor in a given industry join the conspiracy.
Price fixing can take many forms, and any agreement that restricts price
competition violates the law. Other examples of price-fixing agreements
include those to: 

Establish or adhere to price discounts.

Hold prices firm. 

Eliminate or reduce discounts. 

Adopt a standard formula for computing prices. 

Maintain certain price differentials between different types, sizes, or
quantities of products. 

Adhere to a minimum fee or price schedule. 

Fix credit terms. 

Not advertise prices. 
In many cases, participants in a price-fixing conspiracy also establish some
type of policing mechanism to make sure that everyone adheres to the
agreement"

-----Original Message-----
From: trilug-bounces at trilug.org [mailto:trilug-bounces at trilug.org] On Behalf
Of Mike M
Sent: Thursday, April 22, 2004 11:40 PM
To: Triangle Linux Users Group discussion list
Subject: Re: [TriLUG] OT: Developer Rates

On Thu, Apr 22, 2004 at 04:33:32PM -0400, Jim Wright wrote:
> I would look for some of the general salary surveys that are out there

> on the web for info.  Keep in mind that discussing specific rates with

> people who could be considered your competition is illegal.

No it isn't.  You're thinking of price fixing where a small number of
concerns with the power to control the market colude to avoid competing with
each other.

--
Mike

Moving forward in pushing back the envelope of the corporate paradigm.
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