Amazon, Apple Probed by Germany Over Online Sales Curbs (bloomberg.com) 13
Amazon and Apple face German antitrust scrutiny over a policy that excludes independent sellers of brand products on the online market place. From a report: Germany's Federal Cartel Office, the country's antitrust regulator, is probing both companies over a policy at Amazon called "brandgating," the authority said in an emailed statement. The policy allows makers of branded products such as iPhones to have independent sellers removed from the platform as long as Amazon can sell the items, according to the statement. "Brandgating agreements can help to protect against product piracy," the Cartel Office said. "But such measures must be proportionate to be in line with antitrust rules and may not result in eliminating competition." Amazon and Apple are among the tech giants under intense scrutiny by regulators across the world, including in the European Union, which is poised to propose sweeping new laws to rein in Silicon Valley. Authorities are wrestling with how to act against companies that critics say run a rigged game when they set the rules for platforms that also host their rivals.
Amazon Apple Analized by Aliens (Score:1)
an aptly accurate announcement actually. Amazing.
Re: (Score:2)
the devil is in the details.
and have it all start with words that start with the letter a
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adversarial ancillary activity augers against agreement
Anyone got stuck with knockoff junk before? (Score:1)
Also, how many times did you go to buy something from Amazon and mistakenly picked a 3rd party seller?
Hasn't happened to me but family members seem to have a problem with it.
Counterfeit too (Score:4)
Products stamped with apple logos in knockoff apple packaging but not actually made by apple. Amazon should have stopped that. If this is the only way they can do it feasibly then it's not unreasonable.
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The knockoff problem is real. Other stores go to great lengths to verify the authenticity of their brand-name products, lengths that Amazon does not go to. This makes Amazon a buyer-beware marketplace.
But this is not the issue being addressed by Germany. The issue is, Amazon wants to monopolize the selling of brand-name products on its marketplace. For example, why can't a third-party seller sell Energizer batteries? If Amazon wants its site to be a real marketplace, then it needs to compete in that marketp
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I also understand 'legitimate' gray market items (more for Cameras than Apple) but honestly, Ebay shops have a lot more transparency about purchases. They heavily penalize for misleading descriptions so if you're careful about reading and compare a few items by different sellers, it's very telling who's selling kno
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Amazon in fact has a way to select "Sold by Amazon" when you search for products. That's not at issue. What's at issue is that Amazon both prohibits legitimate sellers from competing against Amazon, AND doesn't do a good job of monitoring / penalizing knockoff vendors. Anti-competitive behavior is perfectly acceptable if you're a small company. But when you are Goliath, anti-competitive practices become illegal in most civilized countries, and for good reason.
3rd party sellers (Score:3)
Amazon has had loads of issues with 3rd party sellers. Some, offering too good to be true pricing, some offering good which never get delivered.
Of course, Amazon has rarely taken any steps to solve the "problem". For them, sowing mistrust in the 3rd party sellers is a way to get customers to ensure they look for that "prime" logo.
I have spoken with Amazon a few times after a 3rd party seller never responded and I was always told the same.. make sure you take prime if you want to be sure.
Some would argue that it is not Amazon's responsibility to ensure 3rd party sellers are real. After all, it's a market place and in a real market you have to decide on your own if it is safe.
Yes.. but I can see a real market with my own eyes. I can see if the goods are there and working.
If you operate a mall, where people are not allowed inside, but must order and pay from the parking lot, you, as the owner of the mall do have some liability to ensure the stores are really in there.
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offering too good to be true pricing
I love the ones selling expensive electronics for pennies. Apple iPad Pro $75
In small print ($1,200 shipping & handling)
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You always get your money back . If you are stupid enough to believe the offer you can do without it for a while.
Only way to solve would be for amazon to not allow 3rd parties to do own shipping (well non prime shippping, some 3rd parties are allowed to call theirs prime also when they dispatch themselves).
And what if they did, just go to ebay who don't give a fuck and will fuck you over at all costs (more sellers, but the customer if they set one foot wrong on the way to do things that they don't tell you)
What choice does Amazon have in this (Score:1)
The reason that Amazon does Brand Gating, is that when third parties sell knock off goods through Amazon, they get sued by the brands and rightly loose.
So if your against this policy you would need to explain how Amazon can enforce that every single third party product sold on it’s site is genuine. You could make a case for auditing major resellers, but what about they little guys?
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The problem is not knockoff goods. Other stores spend time and effort researching the products they sell, to make sure they are authentic. Amazon does not do this, making it easy for knockoffs to be sold on their site. If Amazon wants to offer a real marketplace, they need to play by the same rules as everybody else. And they need to find ways to hold sellers accountable for the wares they sell.