Below is my response to a notary group, whereby the moderator closed the topic of discussion of notary fees, because having this discussion apparently violates the Sherman Antitrust Act.
"As to the previous topic of having fee discussions, IT IS NOT against any US law to DISCUSS, DEBATE or OTHERWISE SHARE OUR OPINIONS ON WHAT WE CHARGE OUR CLIENTS.
First, in all fairness, I didn't read the discussion that took place earlier which lead to the topic being closed by one of the Moderators, however, I strongly feel the need to reply and try to set the record straight on this. The Sherman Antitrust Act doesn't PROHIBIT DISCUSSIONS of our fees, in fact, if moderators or admins continue to not allow this topic of discussion here, y'all know where to find me, and I'd love to chat about this, as I believe it's not only an important topic of discussion but seriously needed, especially for newbies and for those still new to the profession, who truly need to LEARN HOW to charge accordingly for their services, AND STOP DEPENDING ON PLATFORMS for work.
Second, without getting into the specifics or legaleese of the law, but reading it at face value, the Sherman Act was enacted to primarily "...curtail combinations of power that interfere with trade and reduce economic competition. It outlaws both formal cartels and attempts to monopolize any part of commerce in the United States."
So having a discussion on our fees is somehow going to reduce TRADE and ECONOMIC COMPETITION? How exactly?
Look, bottomline is that The Sherman Act was created specifically for large corporations, for example, like Google (download a recent court case if interested, https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1328941/download, and NOT a bunch of notaries discussing fees in an open and free democratic society?
Third, I love this group, one of only a few on FB I'm glad to be allowed to partake to offer my experience and knowledge, but if admins are gonna ban and close certain topics of discussion, let it be something like Politics. Just my .02 fwiw.
