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We definitely need platform legislation for the web. After a certain size, they should be regulated as public utilities. So many companies completely depend on
by cptaj 7y ago
We definitely need platform legislation for the web.
After a certain size, they should be regulated as public utilities. So many companies completely depend on Amazon's platform for their business and they're all easy prey for the behemoth.
I did some work for a company that sells batteries on Amazon. A simple dispute got them suspended across the board. A decision made by a third rate employee from god knows where, probably without even a cursory reading of the case, made in a split second, brought down a company with 10 years in the market and hundreds of employees.
No due process, no rights, nothing. You can't defend yourself, they just shut you down and then you have to beg for weeks to be let back in. After weeks and hundreds of thousands in losses, you have no legal recourse against a wrongful suspension.
You can make the argument that they could just set up their own online store for the batteries and you're right, they can. But amazon and ebay are so big that its practically impossible to sell these things at scale without them. Its not a fair game and this is but one of the issues.
They definitely need to be treated as public utilities after a certain amount of users.
- bongobongo 7y agoYou’re describing a monopoly and the proper tool to deal with it is anti-trust, not entrenching it by pretending it’s a public utility.
- notJim 7y agoWhat would that look like though? If consumers wanted to go to 20 different stores to shop online, they'd already be doing that.
- twblalock 7y ago> What would that look like though? If consumers wanted to go to 20 different stores to shop online, they'd already be doing that. They do. Amazon accounts for about 47% of online retail. The rest is divided up among a bunch of other sites.
- bongobongo 7y ago47% of online retail. But they also own a grocery store chain, have their own brick and mortar stores, operate distribution centers, provide much of the world’s cloud computing, own and operate a Hollywood studio, etc. That’s just what I can think of off the top of my head.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]