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Washington state shuts down Amazon price-fixing program nationwide

atg.wa.gov

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

#31

Post by function_seven »

ziml77 wrote: post #18
blakesterz wrote: post #2

"There are about 2.3 million third-party sellers on Amazon worldwide, according to information from a 2018 Amazon letter to its shareholders" That number is pretty amazing. I never would've guessed over 2 million, and that number must be higher by now.

I would assume that the count includes the huge amount of people who sell cheap, unbranded Chinese products under a random all-caps name. So, not that surprising.

Why the all-caps brands for these? Is there some belief that it stands out more or something?

Because it does, and not in a good way. I skip all those when I'm browsing search results.

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

#32

Post by urthor »

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...

That's actually surprisingly cunning.

Run a very in depth training program on how "not" to do antitrust.

Secretly, it's just a training course in antitrust.

Gotta respect the level of commitment to evil.

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

#33

Post by yazaddaruvala »

I'm confused why this is anti-trust. Isn't this how all wholesale vendor deals work?

Regular wholesale: "We'll buy 200 units from you at $20 each. I'll sell them for some other amount, you don't need to care about it".

Amazon in this example: "We'll buy 1 units from you at $20 each. I'll sell them for some other amount, you don't need to care about it. Finally, don't worry about the wholesale rate for a single unit, we will make another 200 offers like this very soon.".

Why is there a legal difference between buying in bulk once and buying 1 many times?

Disclaimer: I used to work for Amazon in Marketplace, but never on this feature.

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

#34

Post by tyingq »

Supermancho wrote: post #21
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All big corps require you to take this kind of training.

> All big corps require you to take this kind of training. I've worked at a couple "big corps" as an internal developer. JPMC, BestBuy, Experian, etc. Never encountered it. I suspect it's only for those companies in danger (or with a history of being charged with) breeching anti-trust.

I have had the training in companies not in danger of anti-trust, but only when in a leadership position, not as a developer. And not a single-purpose anti-trust class, but as part of a business ethics class or similar.

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

#35

Post by lucas_membrane »

It was pretty obvious what Amazon wanted from its business partners if you look at abebooks, a site owned by amazon, but not visibly if you just look at abebooks.com. 'Independent' booksellers sell used books through abebooks, but never for less than amazon sells the same books.

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

#36

Post by comice »

munificent wrote: post #13
ramesh31 wrote: post #4

It snowed really hard here recently. I went to buy two plastic sleds on Amazon, the type you find at a Walgreens for $5. They were $70. I've pretty much curbed my Amazon use for anything but niche hard to find items at this point.

Giant cheap plastic things are essentially a worst-case use for Amazon because the individual delivery cost is most of the price. When you get a 5$ sled at Walgreens, it's cheap because you get in your car and do the last-mile logistics yourself.

there is truth in that but it does not cost 65 dollars to stock and deliver a sled.

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

#37

Post by organsnyder »

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...

> "don't use terms like 'market share' in internal communications"

Sounds like the training was teaching you how to avoid leaving an audit trail rather than how to prevent illegal activity.

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

#38

Post by throw_nbvc1234 »

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 the order fulfillment process for your products."
https://amzscout.net/blog/sold-by-amazon/

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

#39

Post by mtnygard »

Supermancho wrote: post #21
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All big corps require you to take this kind of training.

> All big corps require you to take this kind of training. I've worked at a couple "big corps" as an internal developer. JPMC, BestBuy, Experian, etc. Never encountered it. I suspect it's only for those companies in danger (or with a history of being charged with) breeching anti-trust.

Such training programs are often part of a settlement or judgement against a company that transgressed.

The guilty individuals are long gone, but everyone after them has to take a mandatory ethics/antitrust/anticorruption/sensitivity class each year.

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

#40

Post by urthor »

function_seven wrote: post #31
ziml77 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would assume that the count includes the huge amount of people who sell cheap, unbranded Chinese products under a random all-caps name. So, not that surprising.

Why the all-caps brands for these? Is there some belief that it stands out more or something? Because it does, and not in a good way. I skip all those when I'm browsing search results.

Many official looking order forms and paperwork in supply chains come filled out in all caps.

It's a descendant of all those forms you would fill in with pencil and they'd say "MUST HAVE CAPITAL LETTERS" for legibility.

I suspect that all those all caps descriptions come from when someone has quickly copied and pasted text from manifests and the like, directly into something customer facing.

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