Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: deposits

I agree with Mr. Whipple. I have clients that are professional photographers and they all charge 100% of the cost up front for their services. It is in their contract and the client either accepts or rejects the costs.

Re: deposits

So they want payment in advance. That is legal and perhaps even reasonable.

Actually, there's no real legal reason why the photographer couldn't charge 110%, or 500%. The seller sets the price and terms; then the buyer decides whether they want to buy or not.

When there is but a single source of a good or service due to a government-induced monopoly, we often have price regulation; for example, electric rates are regulated because you basically have one supplier. That is sort of the situation here, too, but so far the California legislature has not created a School Photography Rate Commission to set prices and terms, so it still functions as a kind of unregulated monopoly and you just have to live with it.