2 ms·

It's actually not blatantly selective, you're merely misunderstanding the set of rules they are looking at. Most of the places you probably think of as "in a si

by nolok 7y ago

It's actually not blatantly selective, you're merely misunderstanding the set of rules they are looking at. Most of the places you probably think of as "in a similar situation yet not bothered" [like retail stores] are NOT marketplace, they do NOT sell shelf space. They buy the product, and then they resell it to the end consummer. They are the seller. Amazon presents itself as a marketplace, and gets a few advantages from that (such as being able to shift responsabilities for some issues to the "real" seller), and as such they must act like one on other aspects too. Other French exemples of marketplaces with such rules to follow would be cdiscount for exemple (2nd after amazon in volume).

jandrewrogers 7y ago
I don't know how it works in the EU but in the US stores definitely sell shelf space, and retailers don't always own the products they are selling to the end consumer. Physical retail stores are often essentially modeled as aggregators of consumers, access to which is sold to manufacturers -- it is a platform of sorts. Most of the market arrangements in online retail are mirrored in physical retail. This isn't as clear a distinction in practice as you are making it out to be.
- nolok 7y ago
  Oh there is a very clear distinction, and even one aspect of it that is even super clear for an end user like you and me: warranty (it's not the only or even main one, but it's one that as direct effect for you and me when we buy things). Current law for electronics is, 2 year warranty minimum, your point of contact is the seller. Oftentimes after a few month they redirect you to the manufacturer for the warranty, but if you get in conflict with him, in terms of the law, the onus of the 2 year warranty is on the seller. So if I buy a Samsung phone in Carrefour, and my phone fails, usually after the first week they will redirect me to Samsung, but if Samsung refuses to deal with me for one reason or another, it's Carrefour that has the obligation to fix my issue. The law was made that way with the benefit of the end user in sight, I used Samsung but I could have used "random brand with no presence here and very hard to contact", so since it's the store that sold it to you, they are the one responsible to fix the issue. When going through a marketplace, the seller is not the marketplace. Now, Amazon is rather clean on that one, and they deal with it as if they were, but buy from Cdiscount's or Fnac.com's marketplace and quickly you realize that hiding behind "I'm a marketplace" covers their ass since you need to deal with the actual seller, even if it's some random chinese import company. And in the end, whether the distinction are large or not doesn't matter, they're two different things with different rights and obligations, and you're one, you can't benefit of being the other.
jklinger410 7y ago
>They buy the product, and then they resell it to the end consummer. This is simply not true in many cases and you should stop saying it so directly. It is not a fact that every item you see in a retail space has been purchased by the retailer for resell, period.

by nolok 7y ago

jandrewrogers 7y ago

I don't know how it works in the EU but in the US stores definitely sell shelf space, and retailers don't always own the products they are selling to the end consumer. Physical retail stores are often essentially modeled as aggregators of consumers, access to which is sold to manufacturers -- it is a platform of sorts. Most of the market arrangements in online retail are mirrored in physical retail. This isn't as clear a distinction in practice as you are making it out to be.

nolok 7y ago
Oh there is a very clear distinction, and even one aspect of it that is even super clear for an end user like you and me: warranty (it's not the only or even main one, but it's one that as direct effect for you and me when we buy things). Current law for electronics is, 2 year warranty minimum, your point of contact is the seller. Oftentimes after a few month they redirect you to the manufacturer for the warranty, but if you get in conflict with him, in terms of the law, the onus of the 2 year warranty is on the seller. So if I buy a Samsung phone in Carrefour, and my phone fails, usually after the first week they will redirect me to Samsung, but if Samsung refuses to deal with me for one reason or another, it's Carrefour that has the obligation to fix my issue. The law was made that way with the benefit of the end user in sight, I used Samsung but I could have used "random brand with no presence here and very hard to contact", so since it's the store that sold it to you, they are the one responsible to fix the issue. When going through a marketplace, the seller is not the marketplace. Now, Amazon is rather clean on that one, and they deal with it as if they were, but buy from Cdiscount's or Fnac.com's marketplace and quickly you realize that hiding behind "I'm a marketplace" covers their ass since you need to deal with the actual seller, even if it's some random chinese import company. And in the end, whether the distinction are large or not doesn't matter, they're two different things with different rights and obligations, and you're one, you can't benefit of being the other.

jklinger410 7y ago

>They buy the product, and then they resell it to the end consummer. This is simply not true in many cases and you should stop saying it so directly. It is not a fact that every item you see in a retail space has been purchased by the retailer for resell, period.