While I am not a fan of price protection, it is legal in the USA. Davidoff/Comacho, Fuente, Padron, and perhaps others do it. How he enforced price protection on CP was a textbook example of how to piss off customers, but he isn't alone in aggressive enforcement of his and his vendors' profits.

As for the 'Cracker Jack'-type marketing, well, it does seem to work, especially on the Internet. For some of us, the gimmicks do have the reverse effect.

I've never bought any of his cigars, but the ones that I have smoked have been pretty fair imitations of the various Havanas that he has DPG copy for him. I will stick to the real thing, though :-).