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The FTC sues to break up Amazon over an economy-wide “hidden tax”

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Re: The FTC sues to break up Amazon over an economy-wide “hidden tax”

#61

Post by mjsweet »

endisneigh wrote: post #43
mjsweet wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, they should be able to set their own pricing as they see fit.

They are able to do so, but Amazon is not obligated to have them on their platform if they aren't providing the best price to their customers.

Amazon is a product search engine and should be treated as such. Vendors must have the freedom to set pricing on any platform as they see fit. If all product search engines and ecommerce platforms behaved in this anticompetitive behaviour then what would we have? A weird commercial landscape that lacks flexibility… in the end the consumer looses because free market forces are not in play.

Re: The FTC sues to break up Amazon over an economy-wide “hidden tax”

#62

Post by endisneigh »

dwallin wrote: post #59
endisneigh wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

It's not pro-consumer in any way. If the seller can profitably list it for a given price on a given platform, competition will almost certainly drive their price down to that level. The only time a policy like this becomes significant is if another platform, or the sellers own platform, can offer the product for cheaper than Amazon (eg. maybe they can ship straight from the factory), in which case this policy would f…

Your assumption here is that they have to sell on Amazon to begin with, which they do not. There are plenty of products that you cannot buy on Amazon, so your entire post is ridiculous as it shows again, you don't need Amazon to succeed to begin with.

Re: The FTC sues to break up Amazon over an economy-wide “hidden tax”

#63

Post by belltaco »

endisneigh wrote: post #53
Jensson wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is Amazon forcing them to raise prices on other platforms pro consumer? The only one who benefits from this arrangement is Amazon, everyone else including the consumer just loses out.

Amazon is not forcing them to raise prices on other platforms? Amazon is telling their sellers that they must offer the best price on their platform. That does not necessarily mean they have to raise prices on other platforms.

If another ecommerce platform wants to compete on price to encourage customers to shop there, they cannot. Any discounts will only go to the seller's bottomline. How is that helping customers?

Re: The FTC sues to break up Amazon over an economy-wide “hidden tax”

#64

Post by Jensson »

endisneigh wrote: post #53
Jensson wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is Amazon forcing them to raise prices on other platforms pro consumer? The only one who benefits from this arrangement is Amazon, everyone else including the consumer just loses out.

Amazon is not forcing them to raise prices on other platforms? Amazon is telling their sellers that they must offer the best price on their platform. That does not necessarily mean they have to raise prices on other platforms.

> That does not necessarily mean they have to raise prices on other platforms.

It does, since losing sales on Amazon costs them more than raising the price on other platforms then that is what they will do, since companies are motivated by profit. Amazon knows this, that as a dominant market player if they add this rules the vendors will have to abide it since they will lose more from not using Amazon.

This is how anti-competitive practices works and why we have laws against them.

Re: The FTC sues to break up Amazon over an economy-wide “hidden tax”

#65

Post by endisneigh »

ARussell wrote: post #60
endisneigh wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not how commerce works. Commerce works by following the rules of places that you are trying to sell at. You can't sell anything anywhere.

And Amazon needs to follow the rules and laws of the place that IT'S trying to sell at.

And which law dictates a company must allow people or sellers on its platform?

Re: The FTC sues to break up Amazon over an economy-wide “hidden tax”

#66

Post by smoldesu »

endisneigh wrote: post #58
tartuffe78 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon is abusing it's monopoly power to hurt competition, when Amazon is the only place to certain things, consumer cost will go up.

> when Amazon is the only place to certain things No seller is obligated to sell on Amazon to begin with, so this entire premise is false.

"No manufacturer is obligated to buy Standard Oil or Carnegie steel, so this entire premise is false."

Re: The FTC sues to break up Amazon over an economy-wide “hidden tax”

#67

Post by passwordoops »

kibwen wrote: post #38
endisneigh wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what? That's how e-commerce works. Why should Amazon be obligated to fill their store with higher priced items compared to their competitors? No one is going to visit a store where every item could be purchased cheaper somewhere else. This is exactly why price match is a thing, because they don't want their costumers soliciting different stores to begin with. The move that Amazon's price be no higher than offered…

I don't even know where to begin with this comment. Do you know what anticompetitive behavior is? Do you know how markets are supposed to work? Amazon is leveraging their position in the market to unfairly disadvantage their competitors, thereby distorting the market, decreasing its efficiency, and increasing end prices for consumers everywhere. Market-distorting behavior like this is why antitrust regulation is nece…

[flagged]

Re: The FTC sues to break up Amazon over an economy-wide “hidden tax”

#68

Post by endisneigh »

belltaco wrote: post #63
endisneigh wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon is not forcing them to raise prices on other platforms? Amazon is telling their sellers that they must offer the best price on their platform. That does not necessarily mean they have to raise prices on other platforms.

If another ecommerce platform wants to compete on price to encourage customers to shop there, they cannot. Any discounts will only go to the seller's bottomline. How is that helping customers?

Amazon wants its customers to have the lowest available price. Their rule ensures that. It's very simple.

Re: The FTC sues to break up Amazon over an economy-wide “hidden tax”

#69

Post by endisneigh »

smoldesu wrote: post #66
endisneigh wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> when Amazon is the only place to certain things No seller is obligated to sell on Amazon to begin with, so this entire premise is false.

"No manufacturer is obligated to buy Standard Oil or Carnegie steel, so this entire premise is false."

Yes, because there are not literally thousands of e-commerce stores out there. Amazon is the only one. UPS, USPS and FedEx don't exist either. You must use Prime to transport your stuff.

Re: The FTC sues to break up Amazon over an economy-wide “hidden tax”

#70

Post by endisneigh »

passwordoops wrote: post #67
kibwen wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't even know where to begin with this comment. Do you know what anticompetitive behavior is? Do you know how markets are supposed to work? Amazon is leveraging their position in the market to unfairly disadvantage their competitors, thereby distorting the market, decreasing its efficiency, and increasing end prices for consumers everywhere. Market-distorting behavior like this is why antitrust regulation is nece…

[flagged]

Yes, anyone who disagrees with you is a shill, lol.
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