Why Is Sotheby Unethical

Christie’s is a British corporation was found in 1766 as an auction house. It later expanded its footprint on a global scale having locations all over the world to include expansion into Asia (Christie, 2017). Sotheby ‘boast one of the most sophisticated auction program where bidders have the ability to bid online or anywhere in the world. The company conducts more than 400 auctions a year to include private sales (Christie, 2017). Christie’s auction house focuses primarily on its customer’s needs and ensure to host many events that offers networking and participation of people. To them, doing this has enabled them to expand their footprint, market their business and for people to enjoy what they do the most as it pertains to art. Like Christie’s, Sotheby is also a British auction corporation founded in 1744 in London (Sotheby’s, 2017). The company has major locations in London, New York, Milan, Hong Kong and many more (Sotheby’s, 2017). They have managed to incorporate art experts in many of their locations to further assist with customer’s need and has further assisted with specializing with auction protocols. This has

Sotheby and Christie’s are both mega houses for fine art auctions and deemed to be the most ethical in the industry. Until recently, the CEO of Sotheby was charged with conspiracy with Christie’s international. Such a conspiracy violated antitrust laws by agreeing on fixed pricing for a number of sales. The CEO admitted a few meetings with Christie’s were held discussing commissions charged to the sellers for a given period. Despite the global market changes, the two major auction houses were gaining high commissions from buyer’s payment on goods. Such an act as created an outrage with many art dealers and threated to take their business to another auction house. The rates were revised and different where they both charged much higher percentage. After final review of charges, a settlement agreement was made by which the CEO must