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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

#71

Post by tasha0663 »

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.

It's not unusual for required training for employees to be mandated in the aftermath of, say, a class action lawsuit. So maybe it wasn't the case when you were there, but became that way later.

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

#72

Post by skybrian »

BizarroLand wrote: post #58
skybrian wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds like pretty ordinary corporate training. The idea is that you don’t want ordinary workers saying things that sound bad in discoverable messages, which is very likely if there is the ordinary amount of speculation about things they don’t really know about. Whether any particular thing actually is an antitrust violation is for the lawyers to decide. I guess they decided wrong?

It reads to me like the sexual harassment trainings. Those specifically tell you what not to do to limit the legal liability of the company. Nowhere in any sexual harassment training video have I ever seen anything saying that if you have the urge to sexually harass people to seek a support group or find another, less socially harmful outlet for your energies, not anything. It's strictly about treating the symptoms a…

Sure, there is a general assumption that you, the person taking the training, aren’t actually a bad person who has urges to do illegal things. Would you like to take training assuming you are capable of these things?

Maybe there are bad people in the class but you can’t assume that.

But I have been in training where they give basic dating advice, like if someone makes an excuse that’s as good as a “no.” If they are interested they’ll find a way to reschedule.

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

#73

Post by ineedasername »

clintonc wrote: post #53
yazaddaruvala wrote: post #33

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,…

I am Amazon, and you sell cat mugs. I offer you a "sold by Amazon" contract, which you accept. I start manufacturing my own cat mugs, and sell them at a price that undercuts yours. You have no way to change your price, so your mugs no longer compete effectively with Amazon cat mugs. Most of your sales go away, because Amazon is so dominant as an online marketplace (NOT as a cat mug manufacturer). This is anti-competi…

Can't the seller simply decide not to participate in the program and choose it's own pricing? It can still be sold via Prime & FBA.

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

#74

Post by thaumasiotes »

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.

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

In some cases it may be the only thing the person knows how to do. When I texted something to the person who recorded my electricity meter in Shanghai, I got back the response "哈哈，THANKS".

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

#75

Post by upsidesinclude »

skybrian wrote: post #46
urthor wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It sounds like pretty ordinary corporate training. The idea is that you don’t want ordinary workers saying things that sound bad in discoverable messages, which is very likely if there is the ordinary amount of speculation about things they don’t really know about. Whether any particular thing actually is an antitrust violation is for the lawyers to decide. I guess they decided wrong?

No post body was provided.

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

#76

Post by wenc »

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 worked at two Fortune 250s (both publicly listed) in completely different industries.

Both had antitrust training for all corporate employees not just leadership. I believe —but have no data—that this is common among publicly listed companies.

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

#77

Post by BenjiWiebe »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #65
clintonc wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am Amazon, and you sell cat mugs. I offer you a "sold by Amazon" contract, which you accept. I start manufacturing my own cat mugs, and sell them at a price that undercuts yours. You have no way to change your price, so your mugs no longer compete effectively with Amazon cat mugs. Most of your sales go away, because Amazon is so dominant as an online marketplace (NOT as a cat mug manufacturer). This is anti-competi…

Just to be clear, the difference from wholesaling is that in your example, Amazon has the right to set your prices, but it doesn't buy anything from you? If Amazon actually buys your cat mugs, and then prices them higher than its own cat mugs, such that customers buy Amazon mugs and don't buy your mugs, you still sold all your mugs and there would seem to be no problem.

You sold that batch of mugs, but that's it.

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

#79

Post by FireBeyond »

NovemberWhiskey wrote: post #62
clintonc wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am Amazon, and you sell cat mugs. I offer you a "sold by Amazon" contract, which you accept. I start manufacturing my own cat mugs, and sell them at a price that undercuts yours. You have no way to change your price, so your mugs no longer compete effectively with Amazon cat mugs. Most of your sales go away, because Amazon is so dominant as an online marketplace (NOT as a cat mug manufacturer). This is anti-competi…

That doesn't make any sense to me. If the argument is that Amazon is a dominant retailer and sells its own brand goods to dominate particular segments then exactly the same applies to, say, Walmart. How does the "sold by Amazon" contract relate to that?

Because it can create any product that is selling well, and at any price point, because it _also_ has the right to subsequently raise _your_ price.

You're selling dongles for $20. You sign a contract with Amazon. It realizes that dongles are lucrative, and starts getting them manufactured. Hey, it can sell dongles for $20, too. But then they're competing with you, because you both sell $20 dongles. So, solution, they raise the price of your dongles to $25, so yours become instantly less competitive.

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