RRP (Recommended Retail Price)
A recommended retail price (RRP) is the price a manufacturer or brand suggests that retailers charge for a product, without any obligation for the retailer to actually follow it. The recommendation is one-directional: the brand communicates a price, and each retailer independently decides what to charge. The same idea goes by different names — RRP in the UK and much of Europe, MSRP in the United States, UVP in Germany and adviesprijs in the Netherlands.
What an RRP is used for
Brands use an RRP to give the market a shared reference point: it anchors what a product 'should' cost, gives retailers a starting point for their own pricing and margin calculation, and serves as the reference against which discounts are presented ('RRP €99, now €79'). For brands, the gap between the RRP and actual street prices is also a health indicator — a market that structurally sells far below RRP signals price erosion.
RRP vs MAP
An RRP is a suggestion; a minimum advertised price (MAP) is an enforced floor for advertised prices. A retailer ignoring an RRP faces no consequences from the brand, whereas advertising below MAP typically triggers enforcement under a MAP policy. In Europe, where MAP programs are legally delicate, the RRP often serves as the reference price that brands monitor against.
The EU rule of thumb
Under EU competition law, recommended retail prices are allowed as long as they remain genuinely non-binding: the brand may communicate a recommendation, but may not enforce it with pressure or incentives that turn it into a fixed or minimum resale price, which are in principle prohibited. This page describes the concepts and is not legal advice.
How PricePatrol fits in
PricePatrol lets brands register a reference price per product and per country and then tracks what retailers actually charge, so the gap between the recommended price and the street price becomes visible per shop instead of anecdotal.