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Subject:Re: illegal to discuss/set rates From:"Jeanne A. E. DeVoto" <jaed -at- jaedworks -dot- com> To:<techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Tue, 7 Mar 2000 12:48:04 -0800
At 10:25 PM -0800 3/6/2000, Mary Choy wrote:
>I'm looking for the legalese language about how it is illegal for
>contractors (freelancers) to "discuss" (i.e. set) rates online. Does anyone
>know what I mean?
You'll look a long time, because there is no such law.
The antitrust laws pertain to attempts to collude in order to try to
control prices in a market. For example, they would forbid an attempt to
get writers to all agree on what prices to charge and lock out clients who
wanted to pay a different price.
However, the insistence of a certain three-letter Web organization on
forbidding all pricing discussion on its mailing lists (down to kicking
people off for mentioning that GeoCities offers free web hosting)
notwithstanding, there is no law at all against mentioning rates, online or
otherwise, by freelancers or employees.
>(I need it so I can add it to the list of posting rules for a listserv I'm
>on...)
Please don't. This piece of disinformation has already been destructive
enough without letting it propagate further.
