There are laws about fair trade pricing in the manufacturing and distribution of certain industries. For example, one part of Robinson-Patman mandates that products be offered to all customers in the wholesale trade at the same price. I can’t go into details on it, this was a long time ago for me and it was complicated.
There are also industry wide trade associations that set prices, there was a big lawsuit about almond growers being restrained from selling below a price set by a trade association. The price controls issue goes back at least 70 years to policies set in FDR“s first administration.
The government also sets price supports (price floors) that agricultural producers can not sell below.
The idea is to keep a marketplace competitive by preventing sales below cost on an industry wide basis.
Unfair, maybe but legal.
SRM