This is simply not surprising coming from a company that literally defines anti-trust, anti-consumer, and heavy monopoly abuse. It should be broken up into hundreds of companies.
this post was submitted on 03 Nov 2023
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Dude won monopoly
We really need a functioning IRS, FTC and SEC. Just won't happen if repugs are constantly elected.
No, what we really need is to end capitalism, not pin our hopes on one team or another when both exist to uphold the very system enabling this bullshit (hint: their agencies are never going to work for you).
Man, fuck taking any step in the right direction eh? Let's just hope for the entire world to change instead of hoping for a reasonable change that is a big step in the right direction.
"Can't have anything if it isn't perfect"
I mean capitalism is literally enabling the fossil fuel industry to continue to ramp up production, while we are heading into a climate apocalypse. It's too late for steps.
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wait, I thought that it was covid and supply chains and such and actually that the profit motive encourages them to lower prices because competition and so on
You're forgetting one thing, Amazon has no real competition. Do you have a cloud service that makes you profit hand over fist so that you can dump that money into a loss leader service like amazon delivery?
No?
Well then they're going to undercut you to the point of zero profit margin to suffocate your business.
eBay all the way, boys and girls.
What’s even wilder is that Amazon made no profit for the first 20 years of its existence, something the Feds claim makes Amazon even more dangerous as they spent considerable time building their network and have now turned on full money making mode.
That was just creative accounting so they wouldn't have to pay tax.
Oh... this huge pile of revenue? That's not profit. We're reinvesting it into logistics and executive salaries. We lost money this year. -Amazon
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I'm surprised that there are still people who are surprised about this price hiking algorithm. Have you never seen weirdly fluctuating proves on Amazon before?!
I’ve seen the price go up just by putting it in the basket.
They claimed they stopped using this system a few years ago… pretty sure that’s a technicality where they’re using a successor.
One of the most annoying things for me is how prices fluctuate on items that can’t possibly have that much fluctuation. The following were all sold and fulfilled by Amazon directly. These bandages I use… one week $8, then $13 next time I look, then $10, then $6. Hot sauce: one time $12, then $15, then $20, then $16. Biscuit mix: one time $24, then $45, then $36. It’s all very opaque. I just want one price.
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So, where do we sign up for the class action?
So you can get 5c and the lawyers get 95c for each dollar?
No.
Because I don't trust the FTC fines to be enough to discourage Jeff's actions.
An expensive class action would help hold him accountable.
Plus, he got rid of the mandatory arbitration agreement. So Amazon is open to a class action on this as far as I know.
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I remember an article ages ago that showed that Amazon, undoubtedly a monopoly, was on the right side of the law because of the "consumer welfare standard".
This was back when they were in growth mode and still unprofitable, but it seems obvious with this and their now record profits that they no longer pass that test. Time to break it up.
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Does this mean there will be another penis shaped rocket? 😕
Well I didn’t think that they LOST money using it!!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
WASHINGTON, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Amazon.com (AMZN.O) used a series of illegal strategies to boost profits at its online retail empire, including an algorithm that pushed up prices U.S. households paid by more than $1 billion, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission detailed in a new court filing on Thursday.
... Amazon used Project Nessie to extract more than a billion dollars directly from Americans' pocketbooks," the FTC said.
Amazon spokesperson Tim Doyle said the FTC "grossly mischaracterizes" the pricing tool and the company stopped using it several years ago.
Amazon paused the algorithm during its Prime Day sales events and the holiday shopping season when there was more media and customer attention on the online retailer, the FTC said.
The FTC called Nessie's algorithm an "unfair method of competition" because it manipulates other online stores into raising prices, allowing Amazon to do the same.
In the complaint, the FTC noted that Amazon does not allow other big online stores such as Walmart.com to sell on its platform.
The original article contains 661 words, the summary contains 167 words. Saved 75%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
I feel like proprietary software should be open for auditing for reasons exactly like this.
aaah, innovation™
wow they might get a slap on the wrist and a 50 dollar fine for this.
"Amazon extracted $1 billion of wealth from Americans through secret price aising algorithm."
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