Supplier pricing tier

Definition

The volume tier and rebate a paint supplier gives this account, which no outside rule governs.

Why It Matters

This is the one lever on the shelf with no law behind it, and saying so is the finding. Federal price-discrimination law reaches goods sold for use, consumption or resale, but the arm that governs promotional allowances and rebates reaches only goods bought for resale, and a painting contractor consumes the paint inside a service. No dealer-protection statute reaches a purchase account either: the broadest of them needs a dealership with a community of interest, and a contractor buying at a negotiated tier is the ordinary vendee and vendor relationship those statutes exclude by name. So the tier is worth what the supplier says it is worth, with no filing, no notice period and no cause of action when it moves. Get two years of invoices and the rebate statements, and price the tier as something to renegotiate in the first week.