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New unsealed records reveal Amazon's price-fixing tactics, California AG claims

theguardian.com

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Re: New unsealed records reveal Amazon's price-fixing tactics, California AG claims

#11

Post by vondur »

fmajid wrote: post #5
worik wrote: post #2

Unsurprising Did Amazon think they were too big to convict? I wonder if they will meet the fate of Standard Oil, back in the day.

No, Antitrust law was effectively neutered by the Chicago School and their agent Robert Bork. https://www.theamericanconservative.com/robert-borks-america... (BTW that source is right-wing and can hardly be said to be biased against Bork).

That's fascinating. Bork was denied being on the supreme court but his ideas shaped current antitrust laws. It feels a bit like the old Standard Oil argument: It's ok to have a huge market share so long as pricing for goods gets cheaper even if it hurts competition overall. *edited* for grammar.

Re: New unsealed records reveal Amazon's price-fixing tactics, California AG claims

#12

Post by SilverElfin »

We need all new antitrust laws. The size of these companies is itself a problem. They have so much power that there is no possibility for fair competition. Maybe we can start by taxing companies that are worth more than 1 trillion at an extremely high rate.

Re: New unsealed records reveal Amazon's price-fixing tactics, California AG claims

#14

Post by fg137 »

lelandfe wrote: post #7

If you've ever seen those "Click To Reveal Price" or "Price Only Revealed At Checkout" products online, this here is one reason why. They help businesses keep discounted prices hidden from Amazon's crawlers.

Is it effective, like, at all?

Re: New unsealed records reveal Amazon's price-fixing tactics, California AG claims

#15

Post by cucumber3732842 »

fmajid wrote: post #4

[flagged]

That would be like showing up for the battle of Kursk with an M18 battalion. Might go well at first, you might score some big flashy wins, but....ugh... things are gonna get worse as the party goes on and it's generally an ill advised strategy.

Rico as written and enforced walks right up to the limit of constitutionality in a dozen ways. It's built for speed. It's never really been thrown into a knock down drag out legal action between titans on equal footing (i.e. a bigco legal team, potentially helped by other bigcos). It might survive nominally but it probably won't come out the other end in serviceable condition. You might win a few but eventually an appeal will find its target and end your day.

I say go for it. Heads I win. Tails you get RICO reform.

Re: New unsealed records reveal Amazon's price-fixing tactics, California AG claims

#16

Post by ggreer »

lelandfe wrote: post #7

If you've ever seen those "Click To Reveal Price" or "Price Only Revealed At Checkout" products online, this here is one reason why. They help businesses keep discounted prices hidden from Amazon's crawlers.

This can also be true if the manufacturer of the product requires that retailers not offer a price below a certain amount. This is called the minimum advertised price (MAP) and is common for big brands like Apple. Another way to get around the minimum advertised price is to bundle the product with some other product or service, such as is done with cell phone contracts.

Re: New unsealed records reveal Amazon's price-fixing tactics, California AG claims

#17

Post by xnx »

lelandfe wrote: post #7

If you've ever seen those "Click To Reveal Price" or "Price Only Revealed At Checkout" products online, this here is one reason why. They help businesses keep discounted prices hidden from Amazon's crawlers.

Blame the manufacturer for this, not the reseller.

Re: New unsealed records reveal Amazon's price-fixing tactics, California AG claims

#18

Post by ggreer »

It's odd that this is a request for a preliminary injunction considering that the case is almost four years old. Both the 2022 and the new filing are heavily censored[1][2], so I can't know for sure, but I didn't notice any revelation in the latest filing. Amazon requires that anyone selling through their platform not offer lower prices elsewhere online. If a seller does so, they'll be relegated to the "New & pre-owned" offers section below the "Add to cart" & "Buy it now" buttons. This has been the case since at least 2019. (This also means that if you're shopping on Amazon and want a better deal, you should check the other offers section for a cheaper price.)

Lots of retailers (both physical & online) have similar requirements, and many manufacturers have similar requirements for minimum advertised prices (such as Apple). I think the California AG's plan is to argue that the pricing rules combined with Amazon's large market share merit a judgement against them, but it's going to be an uphill battle to single out one company for practices that are common to the industry.

1. https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/attachments/press-docs/2022-...

2. https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/attachments/press-docs/REDAC...

Re: New unsealed records reveal Amazon's price-fixing tactics, California AG claims

#19

Post by foobarian »

SilverElfin wrote: post #12

We need all new antitrust laws. The size of these companies is itself a problem. They have so much power that there is no possibility for fair competition. Maybe we can start by taxing companies that are worth more than 1 trillion at an extremely high rate.

I wonder who would prosecute them. What about an AG who, when confronted about doing a bad job, deflects by pointing out that Nasdaq is "smashing records?"
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