Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) Policy
Introduction
Paint Over Rust Products, LLC. (P.O.R. Products) recognizes that our high-quality jobbers and distributors invest time and resources to deliver an extraordinary customer experience through knowledgeable staff and compelling vendor presentation. To support our resellers’ efforts, P.O.R. Products wishes to establish policies that allow resellers to earn the profits necessary to maintain the high level of customer excellence people of come to expect from P.O.R. Products jobbers.
To protect the investment of our high-quality jobbers and P.O.R. Products POR-15’s brand reputation, we have unilaterally adopted a MINIMUM ADVERTISED PRICE POLICY (“MAP Policy”) and AUTHORIZED RESELLER POLICY. P.O.R. Products established this MAP Policy due to the fact that reseller advertising and sales practices that promote P.O.R. Products products primarily on the basis of price could be detrimental to resellers’ service and support efforts and P.O.R. Products’ competitive position. Such activities can be harmful to P.O.R. Products POR-15’s brand, reputation and competitiveness, and allow some resellers to take advantage of the service and support efforts of others. P.O.R. Products believes that these practices are unfair and thus discourages such efforts.
P.O.R. Products, in its unilateral discretion, will not do business with any reseller, as to the products covered by this MAP Policy, if that reseller intentionally advertises any POR-15 product below its MAP price. P.O.R. Products is confident that this program will strengthen its competitiveness and benefit all of its resellers.
Additional guidelines related to this MAP Policy are as follows:
- P.O.R. Products reserves the right, in its unilateral discretion, to take other action with respect to any reseller that violates this MAP Policy.
- The MAP Policy will be enforced by P.O.R. Products in its sole discretion.
- P.O.R. Products recognizes that any authorized P.O.R. Products account can make its own decisions to advertise and sell any P.O.R. Products product at any price it chooses without consulting or advising P.O.R. Products. P.O.R. Products similarly has the right to make its own independent decision regarding product allocations and reseller participation as a member of the P.O.R. Products Authorized Distributor Program and Authorized Dealer Program – at any time.
- P.O.R. Products will maintain an updated “MAP Products” list of those products that will fall under this MAP Policy. P.O.R. Products reserves the right to update or modify this list at any time.
- All POR-15 products listed will have a MAP retail price. Listing a price lower other than the MAP retail price next to the featured MAP Product in any advertising will be viewed as a violation of this MAP Policy. This MAP Policy applies to all advertisement of POR-15 Products in any and all media, including, without limitation, flyers, posters, coupons, mailers, inserts, newspapers, magazines catalogs, mail order catalogs, internet or similar electronic media including websites, forums, email newsletters, email solicitations, television, radio, and public signage. Such website features as “Click for price”, automated “bounce – back” pricing e-mails, pre-formatted e-mail responses, forms, automatic price display for any items prior to being placed in a customer’s shopping cart, and other similar features are considered to be communications initiated by the reseller (rather than by the customer) and this constitutes “advertising” under this MAP Policy. This MAP Policy also applies to any activity which P.O.R. Products determines, in its sole discretion, is designed or intended to circumvent the intent of this MAP Policy, such as solicitations for ‘group purchases’ and the like.
- It shall not be a violation of this MAP Policy to advertise in general that the reseller has “the lowest prices” or will match or beat its competitors’ prices, or to use similar phrases; so long as the reseller does not include any advertised price below MAP and otherwise complies with this MAP Policy.
- From time to time, P.O.R. Products may permit resellers to advertise MAP Products at prices lower than the MAP retail price. In such events, P.O.R. Products reserves the right to modify or suspend the MAP retail price with respect to the affected products for a specified period of time by providing advance notice to all resellers of such changes.
- From time to time P.O.R. Products Inc. may offer a direct manufacturer’s rebate to customers. In such events, it shall not be a violation of this MAP Policy to advertise the availability of the manufacturer’s rebate, provided that (a) the advertisement include a MAP-compliant price, the rebate amount, and the net price after manufacturer’s rebate in the same type size and style; (b) an asterisk is placed next to the net price after manufacturer’s rebate; and (c) the “After manufacturer’s rebate” appears in the same area of the advertisement as the advertised product.
- Where P.O.R. Products products are bundled with or sold as part of a package that includes other products (whether or not manufactured by P.O.R. Products), it shall be a violation of this MAP Policy to sell or advertise the bundle (or package) at a price that: (a) is lower than the total Minimum Advertised Price of the P.O.R. Products product or (b) violates the letter or spirit of the MAP Policy. It shall be a violation of this MAP Policy if products are bundled with or sold as part of a package that includes products not pre-approved by P.O.R. Products. Pre-approved products have been tested and approved by P.O.R. Products engineers to ensure the product is up to P.O.R. Products standards. Ask your P.O.R. Products sales representative for a list of approved products.
- Its shall be a violation of this MAP Policy to include in any advertising for P.O.R. Products products with any additional discount, coupon, gift card, or incentive (whether in the form of a special event, promotion, term of doing business or otherwise) that translates into an immediate price reduction, where the cumulative effect would be to reduce the advertised price of any MAP Product below MAP. Advertising that includes an additional discount, coupon, gift card, points, or any other incentive for future purchases (regardless of whether the future purchases is of a P.O.R. Products product) shall be evaluated under the same guidelines as described in Section 9 regarding product bundling. For example, a gift card redeemable on a future purchase would be considered an “other product” under Section 9. This Section 10 shall not apply to any manufacturer’s rebate from P.O.R. Products on P.O.R. Products products or its partners’ products.
- It shall not be a violation of this MAP Policy to advertise that a customer may ”call for price” or “email for price”, or to use similar language, specifically with respect to P.O.R. Products products, so long as no price is listed.
- If a reseller with multiple store locations violates this MAP Policy at any particular store location, then P.O.R. Products will consider this to be a violation by all of the reseller’s locations.
- Although resellers remain free to establish their own resale prices, P.O.R. Products reserves the right to cancel all orders and indefinitely refuse to accept any new orders from any resellers following P.O.R. Products’ verification that such reseller has advertised any MAP Products at a net retail sales price less than the then-current MAP retail price established by P.O.R. Products, or if reseller has violated this policy in any other way.
- P.O.R. Products sales representatives are NOT permitted to discuss this Policy or make any agreements or assurances with respect to P.O.R. Products policy regarding reseller advertising or pricing. This also includes any consumer program or promotion that affects any of the P.O.R. Products MAP Products.
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