Foffa Bikes appear to admit to price fixing with Wiggle in Bike Biz article

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But if Wiggle are agreeing to this, then what other suppliers do they have a similar agreement with?

And from that, just how bad is the bike marketplace from a consumer perspective?

As you would expect, the Americans have it right, and the Europeans (who are basically Fascists groping towards an understanding of freedom) have stuck their oar in where regulation isn't needed.

It's perfectly fine (morally) for Foffa to contract with Wiggle et al to supply their branded product on condition that it is retailed at a certain price. That's freedom of contract for you. If certain retailers have a lower cost base, they will make larger profits, and can use those to offer other things (e.g. Haribo) to consumers in order to differentiate themselves, thereby putting the smaller, higher cost, retailers out of business.

It's not fine for Foffa, Charge, Mongoose et al to enter into a covert agreement that their base models will never be wholesaled below a certain price. That's a cartel, and defrauds the consumer by creating a false impression that the lowest price for a horrible fixie skidder has been settled by the market, since all the manufacturers seem to be selling at that price, whereas the price has actually been set by a secret agreement between manufacturers who have decided not to compete with one another.

So, to answer your question, how bad is the bike market for consumers? It's fine. There's plenty of (illegal in the EU) vertical price maintenance, but also a lot of truly free market action, and basically no evidence of any horizontal price maintenance (cartels). Americans who 'suffer' from vertical price maintenance in some areas tend to exploit the EU prohibition on same by shopping in the much cheaper EU. EU citizens who think they might be disadvantaged by whatever illegal vertical price maintenance is going on have more than enough choice to buy other brands who don't operate in the same way and certainly don't conspire with others to operate cartels.~~

But if Wiggle are agreeing to this, then what other suppliers do they have a similar agreement with?

And from that, just how bad is the bike marketplace from a consumer perspective?

It's fine. There's plenty of (illegal in the EU) vertical price maintenance, but also a lot of truly free market action, and basically no evidence of any (immoral, and illegal pretty much everywhere) horizontal price maintenance (cartels). EU citizens who think they might be disadvantaged by whatever illegal vertical price maintenance is going on have more than enough choice to buy other brands who don't operate in the same way and certainly don't conspire with others to operate cartels.

As you would expect, the EU have stuck their oar in where regulation isn't needed. It's perfectly fine (morally; obviously it's illegal in the over-regulated EU) for Foffa to contract with Wiggle et al to supply their branded product on condition that it is retailed at a certain price. That's freedom of contract for you, the one really basic human right which has never been formally recognised by European supra-national authorities.