June 2010    Download the Entire Issue (PDF)

Vol. 25, No. 6   What's this?

Price-Fixing Dive Shops on Catalina Island

undercover dive operator bests them

from the June, 2010 issue of Undercurrent  

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On small islands and remote locations, one must wonder whether dive shops collude to create a better financial deal for all parties involved, i.e,. fix prices. Well, it happened in California, as two dive shop owners on Santa Catalina island fixed the prices of their dive trips for at least four years. The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office recently charged one of them, John W. Mello of Catalina Diver Supply, with an antitrust and unfair competition case -- using recordings made by another Catalina dive shop owner to nab him in the act. ...