ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Robinson–Patman Act

Have you ever gone shopping with your parents and saw that some products are priced differently than others? For example, have you seen that one store charges more money for a toy than another store for the same toy? This is where the Robinson-Patman Act comes in!

The Robinson-Patman Act is a law that helps to make sure all companies that sell products to stores do so at the same price. This is called fair competition. The law says that companies can't give special deals or discounts to some stores and not to others, unless it's for a good reason. This means that if a toy company wants to sell their toys to two different stores, they can't charge one store more money than the other store just because they like that store better.

Why is this important? Well, it's because if some stores get special deals on products, they can sell those products for a lower price than other stores. This makes it unfair for the stores that can't sell the items at a lower price. The Robinson-Patman Act helps to make it fair for all the stores to sell products for the same price.

So, next time you go shopping, remember that the Robinson-Patman Act helps to make sure that all stores can sell products for the same price and have a fair chance to compete with each other.