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I came here to say the same thing. That seems to be the key point of their argument and it's glossed over in two sentences. Unless Amazon is punitively punish

I came here to say the same thing. That seems to be the key point of their argument and it's glossed over in two sentences. Unless Amazon is punitively punishing sellers who sell off site cheaper, it doesn't seem like there's much there. They mentioned the "algorithm" which seems to imply this isn't an agreement entered into by the seller. Is Amazon crawling other market places to check seller prices against their site? Couldn't sellers circumvent this by using a different name? This allegation is put forth without any supporting evidence and, considering the amount of crummy things sellers do on Amazon already, it seems trivial to circumvent.

arrosenberg 5y ago
> Is Amazon crawling other market places to check seller prices against their site? I didn't sell directly on Amazon for long enough to find out, but from talking to other merchants, I understand that they were/are doing this. IMO, even if the merchants enter into those terms willingly, it's still anticompetitive. Amazon is effectively creating a protectionist trade zone like the British used to enact in the 1760s and 1770s. The merchants enter into it because the alternative is "don't trade with a huge portion of the market" and also maybe face predatory attacks from Amazon-friendly merchants.
- cptskippy 5y ago
  Yeah it's definitely anticompetitive but I find it strange there's no evidence to back the claim up.