Internet Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) Policy
Effective 1/1/13
Comfort Design™ Furniture (“Comfort Design”) is committed to ensuring that the Comfort
Design brand stands for high quality, comfortable and reliable furniture and that the kind of
advice, service, knowledge and support necessary to maintain a high level of customer
satisfaction is available to end users of its products.
Comfort Design has concluded that internet advertising of discounted prices can negatively
affect the goodwill associated with Comfort Design’s products and damage the standing and
reputation that the products have achieved in the marketplace. In addition, internet advertising of
discounted prices may discourage furniture dealers ("Dealers") from offering the pre-sale and
post-sale services that Comfort Design believes are critical to maintaining the reputation of its
products and may also lead end users to purchase furniture without the benefit of talking with
sales representatives about alternatives or testing the furniture to make sure that it is what they
want to buy. For these reasons, Comfort Design has established an internet Minimum
Advertised Price (“MAP”) Policy applicable to all Dealers.
This MAP Policy has been unilaterally adopted by Comfort Design to protect the Comfort
Design brand and the reputation of Comfort Design products in the marketplace and to
encourage Dealers to provide a full range of pre-sale and post-sale services for Comfort
Design products.
MAP Policy
Dealers are free to sell Comfort Design products at whatever prices they choose, but must
advertise Comfort Design products at or above the minimum advertised prices listed by Comfort
Design from time to time in its ecom SKU file. For purposes of this MAP Policy, advertising
means any advertising on internet sites or similar electronic media. All internet pages other than
pages associated with an intent to purchase are covered by this policy.” Actual prices charged to
customers may be provided by telephone, email response and product purchase confirmation
webpages or communications.
Advertising below the MAP violates the Policy. Violations include any price with “strike
throughs”, any price coupled with discounts such as coupons or free accessories resulting in an
effective advertised price for Comfort Design products less than the MAP, and any price for a
bundle of products that includes one or more Comfort Design products.
This MAP Policy applies only to Dealer’s advertised prices, not to its selling prices.
Policy Violations
This MAP Policy will be uniformly enforced. Comfort Design will monitor compliance with the
Policy and will impose sanctions up to and including termination of its business relationship with
any Dealer found to be in violation of the MAP Policy.
Violations of this MAP Policy will be determined by Comfort Design in its sole discretion, and
Dealers should not contact Comfort Design to confirm their compliance or to report
noncompliance by others.
Policy Modifications
Comfort Design reserves the right at any time to modify, suspend or discontinue this MAP
Policy in whole or in part.
No Agreement
This MAP Policy does not constitute an agreement between Comfort Design and any Dealer who
complies with the Policy. Each Dealer will decide, in its sole discretion, whether to comply or
not to comply and, therefore, compliance does not evidence any kind of agreement between the
Dealer and Comfort Design.
Contact Information
COMFORT DESIGN SALES REPRESENTATIVES HAVE NO AUTHORITY TO MODIFY
OR GRANT EXCEPTIONS TO THIS POLICY OR TO HAVE ANY COMMUNICATIONS
WITH DEALERS REGARDING VIOLATIONS OF THIS POLICY.
Dave Bryant is the policy administrator for the MAP Policy and may be contacted at 336-6256175. The policy administrator is solely responsible for responding to questions and
communicating decisions about the Policy, determining whether a violation of the Policy has
occurred and imposing sanctions for violations of the Policy.