Legal Question in Business Law in Maine

price increase

One of my manufactures alerted us that prices for their product were going to rise for shipments made after August. So I put in an order for a shipment in July and quoted my customers the lower price since the shipment was scheduled before August. The manufacturer has since pushed the shipment back to August and raised the price of each item by 10%. I can not raise the price on my customers so I will be taking a 10% hit on each item (about a $45,000 cut). Is what the manufacturer doing legal? Pushing the shipment date back to charge me more?

My business is located in Maine and the company we buy from is located in Pennsylvania.


Asked on 7/02/08, 10:58 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Jerome Gamache Ainsworth Thelin & Raftice, P.A.

Re: price increase

It does not sound to me like an issue of legal or not. It sounds like an issue of whether or not you have a right to damages if they are breaching their contract with you. If you were a consumer Maine could protect you with unfair trade practice laws. Since this is commercial, the contact, purchase order, course of dealing and application of the Uniform Commercial Code to your industries practices would need to be done before you should assume you are stuck with this added cost. Since your supplier knows you rely on its pricing and its order fulfillment for your customers, I am very curious as to why the order was bumped into August and what reason they give to justify not honoring the price quoted at the time of the order.

Read more
Answered on 7/06/08, 9:03 pm


Related Questions & Answers

More Business Law questions and answers in Maine