The FTC Sues to Break Up Amazon over an Economy-Wide “Hidden Tax”

Re:The FTC Sues to Break Up Amazon over an Economy-Wide “Hid... by dwallin on Wednesday October 04, 2023 @09:16AM (#37764630)

It's not pro-consumer in any way. If the seller can profitably list it for a given price on a given platform, competition will almost certainly drive their price down to that level. The only time a policy like this becomes significant is if another platform, or the sellers own platform, can offer the product for cheaper than Amazon (eg. maybe they can ship straight from the factory), in which case this policy would force them to raise their prices, while simultaneously removing potential competitive pressure on Amazon.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:The FTC Sues to Break Up Amazon over an Economy-Wide “Hid... by endisneigh on Wednesday October 04, 2023 @09:16AM (#37764644)

Your assumption here is that they have to sell on Amazon to begin with, which they do not. There are plenty of products that you cannot buy on Amazon, so your entire post is ridiculous as it shows again, you don't need Amazon to succeed to begin with.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:The FTC Sues to Break Up Amazon over an Economy-Wide “Hid... by dwallin on Wednesday October 04, 2023 @09:34AM (#37764931)

You are a seller. Amazon makes up 40% of your sales. You have your own first party website where you can profitably offer your product for 5% less and still make an additional 10% profit but it only makes up 5% of your sales currently.

What's your move in this position?

You can't just imagine all companies as perfect frictionless spherical interchangeable cows. In reality companies as large as Amazon can have significant market distorting effect, while much smaller companies might have to choose between their principles and going out of business.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:The FTC Sues to Break Up Amazon over an Economy-Wide “Hid... by endisneigh on Wednesday October 04, 2023 @09:40AM (#37765025)

You can lower the product for 5% on both your site and on Amazon. Since Amazon makes up the plurality of your sales you gain more sales both there and on your site. Everyone wins except for you, and such is the life of race-to-the-bottom e-commerce sales.

What I'm describing is already what happens, by the way. Look at Anker for an example.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:The FTC Sues to Break Up Amazon over an Economy-Wide “Hid... by Jensson on Wednesday October 04, 2023 @09:53AM (#37765190)

> Everyone wins except for you

Which is why your scenario here wont happen. Thanks for clarifying so well why your argument "there is no consumer harm" is bullshit, what you said here means you know that what Amazon does here increases prices.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:The FTC Sues to Break Up Amazon over an Economy-Wide “Hid... by endisneigh on Wednesday October 04, 2023 @10:00AM (#37765307)

The consumer is Amazon’s end customer, not the seller. Amazon sellers can and do take a loss to sell on Amazon, and ultimately the seller's fate is of no concern to Amazon. Again, they don't have to sell on Amazon to begin with. I buy plenty of bike parts, for example directly on their site and they're not even offered to Amazon to begin with.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:The FTC Sues to Break Up Amazon over an Economy-Wide “Hid... by dwallin on Wednesday October 04, 2023 @10:02AM (#37765328)

Great, you gain more sales and immediately go out of business since you were already pricing your product near cost.

Prices then rise back up as your nearest competitor was smart enough to not lower price below their cost.

Or do you somehow believe that price competition currently only exists everywhere EXCEPT on Amazon's platform?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:The FTC Sues to Break Up Amazon over an Economy-Wide “Hid... by bryan_w on Wednesday October 04, 2023 @01:31PM (#37768658)

> What's your move in this position?

What about taking out an ad to let people know where to buy your cheaper item? People didn't know walmart.com existed until a tv ad told them. Doesn't seem unreasonable to take some of the saving from not selling on Amazon and use it for services the platform was providing (discoverability).

Nothing changes until it changes.

[ Parent | on HN ]