Quoted from BallLocks:Not totally true here, as most distributers will at least claim Stern has set a "floor" for selling or discounting games. Although I agree distributers can and should be able to sell the machines for whatever they want--it should work both ways (i.e, distributors can sell for much more than, AND as much less than MSRP as they want). In other words, I think Stern should either be fully in, or fully out of the pricing equation, and today they are not.
In general it is illegal for manufacturers to completely control pricing of their goods when sold by a distributor, retailer, etc. but there are exceptions. What most people confuse with setting a minimum price is MAP, which is minimum ADVERTISED price, this is allowed and many manufacturers like Sony do it regularly. They can't stop a reseller for having a call now or add to cart to see price that is lower than their MAP or it's called price fixing.