California Attorney General Rob Bonta last night filed a request for a preliminary injunction in California’s existing case against Amazon for price fixing. Attorney General Bonta’s 2022 lawsuit alleged that the company stifled competition and caused increased prices across California through its anticompetitive policies in order to avoid competing on price with other retailers. New evidence paints a clearer and more shocking picture. The motion for a preliminary injunction comes after a robust discovery process where California uncovered evidence of countless interactions in which Amazon, vendors, and Amazon’s competitors agree to increase and fix the prices of products on other retail websites to bolster Amazon’s profits. Time and again, across years and product categories, Amazon has reached out to its vendors and instructed them to increase retail prices on competitors’ websites, threatening dire consequences if vendors do not comply. Vendors, bullied by Amazon’s overwhelming bargaining leverage and fearing punishment, comply — agreeing to raise prices on competitors’ websites (often with the awareness and cooperation of the competing retailer), or to remove products from competing websites altogether. Amazon’s goal is to insulate itself from price competition by preventing lower retail prices in the market at the expense of American consumers who are already struggling with a crisis of affordability.
BREAKING NEWS!!
Evil company known for being evil is caught doing evil things!
👏🏻 We 👏🏻 demand 👏🏻 public 👏🏻 executions 👏🏻
Nothing will change until there’s jail time for executives.
But but but capitalism, free market, competition, etc. etc. etc …
New evidence shows Amazon, its vendors, and competing retailers are price fixing, hiking up prices for consumer products and making Amazon richer and richer
So, jail time it is for Jeff Bezos, right?
You joke, but…
Well, yeah, it’s just a joke. Not a funny one, either.
You can stop buying from Amazon whenever you choose to. There are online alternatives to every product they sell. You don’t need to be part of it. Whatever excuse you give is wrong.
Sure, but don’t deflect the responsibility to fix the economy onto the individual, this is a problem of monopoly and should be treated as such.
Time and again, across years and product categories, Amazon has reached out to its vendors and instructed them to increase retail prices on competitors’ websites, threatening dire consequences if vendors do not comply.
Yes, buying from alternative websites is the bare minimum and the bar is so low it’s underground. But that’s beside the point: Amazon is price fixing across the internet.
I’ve tried, but some companies only sell their products on Amazon, even when going to the products website, they link back to Amazon when you click the Buy Now button.
I buy things on eBay sometimes and it’s shipped by Amazon with a gift receipt lol
I buy direct from the manufacturer whenever I can.
The prices outside of Amazon will be higher though, that’s the reason for this enforcement, the “Amazon tax”. Cory Doctorow has been talking about it for a while. I’m glad to see someone that can do something heard it.
Finding stuff outside of Amazon isn’t easy, though. Search engines barely show results for anyone outside Amazon, Walmart, and ebay. Too often I’ll find a retailer for a while only for Amazon to buy it later or otherwise destroy them (I miss Woot and Jet and Fictionwise and Bookpool, &c).
Further their prices often aren’t the best, and it’s going to continue getting worse.
Its cheaper… I have no excuse unfortunately but I’m addicted to new stuff
The issue I’ve had with the “Just shop somewhere else. Don’t use Amazon” is that it’s very US-specific response. Amazon has absolutely dominated the online shopping space in Canada for years because they are one of the few companies that dealt with the biggest reason why shopping online in Canada has been difficult: Shipping. $20-$40+ domestic shipping fees are normal in Canada for most other retailers which means you could be paying double the cost of your order (or more) just on shipping alone, so as soon as Amazon came in and offered free coast-to-coast shipping they had basically won the market instantly. There were teething issues, of course, and their earlier shipping contractors were horrendous but they did smooth most of that out.
Nowadays they still have very little competition that can beat them on shipping, but there are more and more options popping up. There are some Canadian online stores that offer free shipping or free if over a certain reasonable amount. The COVID pandemic really pushed a lot of local retailers to set up affordable online ordering and delivery systems for local customers, so that has also become an option. Aliexpress has also greatly improved their free shipping process to Canada and considering most of what Amazon sells is just rebranded Aliexpress stuff, it’s a great way of getting the same items for cheaper if you’re ok waiting a few extra days. So most of my online purchases these days have been a mixture of Canadian retailers and Aliexpress.
I’ve pointed out Valve doing basically the same thing; games can’t be priced lower than Steam on competing game storefronts (not Steam key resellers), or Valve will threaten to delist your game. Which would be essentially kill it. And they obviously do this to protect their chunky store fee.
But personal loyalty goes a long way.
I’m trying to reframe the perspective here, not drag into an argument about Valve. A whole lot of people feel good about finding “deals” on Amazon, about Amazon services that have helped them, and especially about the value and convenience the whole platform provides. It’s easy for Lemmy to hate on Amazon, but for the average person, I think this is a harder sell than most of us realize. They’ll dismiss it as the “market working” or California sensationalism or, more likely, just filter it out as noise in their feed, just like most PC gamers would when they read something bad about Valve.
Valve’s not a good guy, but your attempt to “reframe the perspective” is lacking a major detail. If amazon were to simply GIVE you the product after you’ve paid the competitor then it’s quite a different story… yet that’s what steam will do.
I boycott pretty much all the big corporations. I can’t really boycott Amazon because I am in a super rural part of the US and run a small business. Like most small businesses I purchase a lot of random doodads and thingamabobbers from china. Amazons monopoly on the US post office and their logistic network that gets bulk goods from china to my house is hard to live without. They fix more than prices, the whole economy is stacked in their favor. They basically won globalism and it was bad for the globe.
Valves scope is much smaller and less destructive. They keep their customers due to loyalty and the investment into a steam library.
Yeah…
That’s how Amazon worked. At first.
Back then, online shopping kind of sucked, and this little book store company made its so streamlined I got invested.
Busted? It’s well know Amazon price fixes across the economy and forces sellers to charge for the product, plus the listing fees to get on the first two pages of searches , now creeping up to 40%.
All these comments reminded me why we got the personal responsibility to recycle plastic, and the corporations got more incentives to produce and consume plastic. All you tankies need to take responsibility for your voting habits and get out of poor people’s spending habits. You sound like the capitalists. Cut the avocado toast out and the world will change.
Tankies trying not to complete a horseshoe with a group they hate: challenge impossible!
I think you’re supposed to switch accounts between comments.
No just wanted to add that in without an edit. It’s just how my brain works. I don’t have 2 accounts. I don’t need a safe space or a chorus. I said what I said. Glad I inspired you enough to comment. Stay mad tankie
Yeah, IIRC when a bunch of large corporations got away with doing this in the 1980s and 90s, a lot of us just assumed it would keep happening. Some people have tried raising the alarm about this, but have been shouted down pretty consistently.
Were Boomers in power then? Ah, yeah they took over sitting as president after Regan, so like late 80s/early 90s. They’ve been sitting as president since, and they’re the most spoiled generation there has ever been. So, it makes sense they’d ignore anything with consequences later down the line. Everything was handed to them, then they hiked up the ladder behind them.
oh I just cant wait for the highest profile minor slap on the wrist of the century!
Dont worry guys well give one of the richest men in the world a 100k fine!
Yeah don’t worry. They’ll get a small fine and will appeal and drag it out for years
I could see them threatening something absurd like no longer shipping to California.
I cannot express enough how angry I am that people still use amazon. Major cringe when friends tell me all the shit they buy on there. I used it 10 years ago a couple times, never once since then. Its shit, slave labor, and enriches billionaires. No one forces you to use it.
Once all the competitors are gone, they will increase the prices to absurd, heartless levels
Its always the plan. Walmart. Discord. They all do the exact same thing. Which is why we must resist.
Feel free to provide goods to my rural community any time! You can’t believe that poor people have budget consideration and seek the cheapest product?
Use eBay or literally any other site. What is so specific to amazon that you need ? Amazon isn’t even cheaper in many cases if you actually search.
It’s cringe because it’s affordable and convenient? Whenever I buy something from there I always price compare online and it’s the cheapest hands-down. Some people don’t have the luxury of constantly considering geopolitics and large-scale repercussions when they’re just simply trying to get by.
Sure, but there’s many people who are wealthy enough to make the choice and still use amazon because they dont know any better. And this is what happens.
It super depends on what you’re buying. Personally, I just go without in order to avoid them. The only things I ever buy from Amazon are things I cannot find anywhere else that I need to have, such as water filters for the lead pipes in Montréal.
We don’t have the luxury to ignore how bad Amazon is. Amazon is aware of this and does everything it can to force you to buy from them by under cutting other businesses until competition dries up. Every time I can buy something for a little bit more and skip Amazon that’s a huge a win for everyone from the original supplier, the more local store selling it, and the working class in general.
Edit: Reading and writing more comments, I’m gunna find a way to get those filters from elsewhere even if they cost a bunch more.
No bro water filters from Amazon are unethical, please expose yourself to lead because some guy on lemmy is virtue signaling /s
“some people don’t have the luxury of considering whether their product is made from death camp body parts when they’re just simply trying to get by”
Jesus H Fucking Christ. How about electing a government that will regulate Amazon instead of comparing poor people who need consumer goods to nazis. This is some tankie ass behavior
You missed the point completely, so I’ll lay it out for you: Everyone has to draw a line SOMEWHERE. And when a country whose government sends fascist death squads into the streets is supported by a company, there’s a fuckton of lines to be drawn.
There’s ZERO excuse for doing business with amazon. No one is starving because they can’t shop there. So GTFO with your lazy ass morally corrupt exuses.
Yeah, these people saying they NEED amazon probably didn’t live in ye olden days without internet. We survived then, you can survive now.
There’s thousands if not millions of sellers all over the internet. People are lazy/dumb and just want to 1 click buy and are scared to go anywhere but amazon.
And then have the nerve to argue on behalf of “poor people” most of whom probably don’t have any spare money to buy convenience products on amazon.
I mean Walmart wiped out every other store so that’s usually where “poor” people have to go, especially in small towns. Amazon is doing it on a much larger scale.
Unfortunately, they are a master at driving local businesses out of money. Buying a certain pet food at my local retailer (a franchisee) would be about $30. On Amazon, it’s $25 (and sometimes even $15-20, if you do the subscription discount). At the local store, I’d have to pay more and drag the stuff home on my own feet.
It’s the Walmart model. A lot of the frustration is that it’s a systemic problem where individuals are incentivized against their best interests and the best interests of their communities.
Because shareholders. The Line, must go up.
Thankfully (/s) Amazon has enough money that it’s cheaper to bribe politicians than provide a better product. So systemic solutions are that much more difficult.
They’re BUSTED when someone goes to prison.
For now they’re just SLAMMED
Just wait until they get BLASTED in a strongly worded email.
Well, it’s California’s attorney general, so better than even chance for actual punishment.
“Europeans need to be harder on Amazon” Wags greased finger
As far as distractions from the Epstein Files go, this is an exciting one.
…did bezos get mixed up the honeypot?..
Can’t wait for them to be fined one penny for every $20B made.
Hey now, don’t get your hopes up.
