Class Ring pricing (rip off!)

[freeloader]

Do a quick Google search for “class rings antitrust lawsuit”. There have been a number of FTC complaints and lawsuits about class rings. Basically, there are 2 or 3 companies that sell the vast majority of class rings. The companies tend to get exclusive licensing agreements with the various college and universities. These very few companies are able to keep prices artificially high because there is no competition. There also have been repeated allegations of actual collusion and price-fixing in this market.

Part of the higher cost for a college ring is also because the college gets a cut under its marketing deal, the marketing company that handles the marketing deal for the college gets a cut, and, in all likelihood, the NCAA gets a cut (if you attended an NCAA school). The rest of the difference is the “excess profits”, if you will, that result from the anti-competitive nature of college branding.

How far does this stuff go? The Commonwealth of Kentucky wanted to “brand” its Covid-19 response messaging as “Team Kentucky” and sought to trademark that. This is the state government we are taking about. The University of Kentucky formally opposed the trademark request because they claimed the state was infringing on the university’s marketing and that the university’s brand would be diminished by the state (which, of course, owns the university). Ohio State tried to trademark the word “the”, the result of would have meant, practically speaking, that any university or college who wanted to put THE in front of the name (THE University of X as opposed to University of X) on its merchandise would have had to pay OSU a royalty.


https://amp.usatoday.com/amp/8161774002
https://www.thelantern.com/2020/03/ohio-...rk-battle/