Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Washington state shuts down Amazon price-fixing program nationwide

atg.wa.gov

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

201–210 of 344 posts

Re: Washington state shuts down Amazon price-fixing program nationwide

#201

Post by drewzero1 »

Spooky23 wrote: post #178
encryptluks2 wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Unfortunately if you really need genuine products you simply cannot buy things off Amazon anymore. That is a very generalized statement. I have bought hundreds products shipped and sold by Amazon and never had an issue with authenticity. I'm sure it happens, but I'm willing to guess it is pretty rare and Amazon has always been quick to refund products that are shipped and sold by Amazon.

How do you know? Some of the fake stuff is pretty good. Would you notice if your energizer batteries were random Chinese fakes? The first fake I discovered on amazon was a mouse trap of all things.

Batteries (as energy storage devices) are a great example of something I wouldn't want to be counterfeit. A poorly made battery has a better chance of starting a fire. Probably not going to happen with AAAs, but larger cells like 18650s might be worth a worry.

I probably wouldn't care about a mouse trap though, as long as the mechanism doesn't store enough energy to burn my house down.

Re: Washington state shuts down Amazon price-fixing program nationwide

#202

Post by kingcharles »

NavinF wrote: post #199
bilbo0s wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I think people do trust amazon, they don't trust all the other companies on amazon. But unless I'm misunderstanding, this move means that people can't buy from amazon any longer. They have to buy everything from all the other vendors on amazon. The problem being, of course, that these other sellers may or may not scam you. (I'm not 100% about that interpretation of this move, but that's what it sounds like? Law…

Oh Amazon has been selling garbage for years, but only for “commodity” items that the average user can’t test for quality. Example: All coin cells (regardless of brand/seller) on Amazon are fake. These cells last 2-4 months (long enough that most people won’t bother to contact support) when the same model from an electronics distributor like Mouser lasts ~8 years as advertised. > people may want to limit online shopp…

I would guess that carries to other batteries as they are easy to fake and hard to detect.

A decent proportion of all the memory cards, flash drives and SSDs are fake on Amazon.

Re: Washington state shuts down Amazon price-fixing program nationwide

#203

Post by 8ytecoder »

bytelines wrote: post #193
DannyBee wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can we please kill this trope? it is because humans use terms colloquially rather than with the utmost precision, and then it gets held up as if the person meant the exact precise legal concept. This is true always, which is why the advice this person got is also commonly given in lots of forms. For example, doctors are often trained in being careful in what they write down for the same reason. The audit trail is alw…

> This is true always, which is why the advice this person got is also commonly given in lots of forms. For example, doctors are often trained in being careful in what they write down for the same reason. Alternative take: it is indeed for the same reason - to avoid incriminating yourself. You carry assumption that the behavior is not incriminating. Doctors do commit in malpractice. Companies do engage in monopolisti…

Not to defend corporations, but they do. It’s repeatedly drilled down in you to reach out to the legal dept. That said companies care a lot about the legality of things and not necessarily the morality. And they hire people who would “get things done”. Consequently converting the legal training to “how to avoid to getting caught” training.

Re: Washington state shuts down Amazon price-fixing program nationwide

#204

Post by cellis »

Aloha wrote: post #26
reaperducer wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not great that corps get away with paying such small fines. But in a case like this, I surmise that it's a way for the AG to extract a fine that is big enough to be meaningful to some people, but small enough that Amazon isn't going to drag it through the courts for the next decade.

Its big enough that someones bonus pool got wiped out.

Doubtful. In house Counsel probably pocketed a fat bonus for this masterful litigation.

Re: Washington state shuts down Amazon price-fixing program nationwide

#205

Post by netr0ute »

nickcox wrote: post #186
coryrc wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not GP, but I just ordered from a reputable seller online. They're closed for several weeks because the warehouse staff is out due to COVID. Who knows when I'll get the several hundred dollars of stuff I ordered. I'd already have it if I had ordered from Amazon.

> I'd already have it if I had ordered from Amazon. Because Amazon force their staff to keep working?

That's how Amazon has the competitive edge.

Re: Washington state shuts down Amazon price-fixing program nationwide

#206

Post by JohnTHaller »

ISL wrote: post #45
throw_nbvc1234 wrote: post #38

In case others were as confused as i was about this "While they’re often confused, Sold by Amazon and Fulfilled by Amazon are two different things. With SBA, Amazon prices your products and owns any transactions that take place. When an item sells, they pass the proceeds on to you for allowing them to sell your product. With FBA, you price your products and own the transactions. It is a service where Amazon handles t…

I'm extra confused, as I'd interpreted "Ships from and sold by Amazon" as "Amazon supplied the goods and will vouch for their validity", whereas "Sold by ISL" would have meant that ISL was on the ultimate hook should the goods prove to be counterfeit. Learn something new (and important) every day.

Amazon's inventory is co-mingled. So, the warehouse has the widgets sourced by Amazon itself to sell, by the widget maker themselves on their own store on Amazon, by a small chain store in one state to sell, and by random dude who might possibly be importing counterfeits to sell on his fulfilled by Amazon store. All of those widgets are in a big pile and all have the same packaging and barcodes. Whether you buy from random dude or Amazon, you're getting a random one from the pile.

Re: Washington state shuts down Amazon price-fixing program nationwide

#207

Post by erik_seaberg »

judge2020 wrote: post #87
valar_m wrote: post #9

Former Amazonian here. When i was there, they made us take this antitrust training course that had things like "don't use terms like 'market share' in internal communications", but all along there were people doing this? I mean...

This is standard procedure among any large company in a market. Ideally, antitrust should be proven by actions and not by “see! Your employees say you dominate the market! Take that!”

This. I’m not qualified to prosecute antitrust law; I’m not even a lawyer. How is it that I can throw the company under the bus just by misusing terms of art that I vaguely understand?

Re: Washington state shuts down Amazon price-fixing program nationwide

#208

Post by mypalmike »

bilbo0s wrote: post #156
snowwrestler wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not just buy from somewhere else? I don’t understand why you would put this level of effort into shopping at a place you don’t trust.

Well, I think people do trust amazon, they don't trust all the other companies on amazon. But unless I'm misunderstanding, this move means that people can't buy from amazon any longer. They have to buy everything from all the other vendors on amazon. The problem being, of course, that these other sellers may or may not scam you. (I'm not 100% about that interpretation of this move, but that's what it sounds like? Law…

"this move means that people can't buy from amazon any longer. They have to buy everything from all the other vendors on amazon."

You did not read the article.

Re: Washington state shuts down Amazon price-fixing program nationwide

#209

Post by dash2 »

granzymes wrote: post #173
fragmede wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's more nefarious than simple loss-leadering and undercutting your competitor's margins. That's business 101. Amazon is playing business 201. Amazon took over pricing for the widget, and then undercut that price with their own. Stay with me for a second because 201 is kinda complicated. Widget usually sells for $25. Amazon agrees to buy 1 from you at $20 (you give them a volume discount because it's Amazon buying s…

Is there any evidence this happened? It seems like companies would simply leave the "sold by Amazon" program, and quickly.

The article says so.
Post reply on HN