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Doesn't Amazon itself violate the Robinson–Patman Act with its dynamic pricing? [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robinson%E2%80%93Patman_Act http://en.wikipedia.or
by anton_tarasenko 12y ago
Doesn't Amazon itself violate the Robinson–Patman Act with its dynamic pricing? [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robinson%E2%80%93Patman_Act http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robinson%E2%80%93Patman_Act]
- elmin 12y agoWhat evidence is there that Amazon sets different prices for different users for the same goods?
- anton_tarasenko 12y agoThis, for example: "We do, however find some price variations for Kindle ebooks on www.amazon.com, depending on if the user is logged in to the site or not." [http://arxiv.org/abs/1307.4531 http://arxiv.org/abs/1307.4531] Also see Figure 1 for the evidence of prices highly varying over time. It implies that different users pay different prices within small periods of time.
- tzs 12y agoOne of the elements is that "the effect of such discrimination may be substantially to lessen competition or tend to create a monopoly in any line of commerce". I don't think Amazon's dynamic pricing satisfies that element.
- anton_tarasenko 12y agoThat's up to government commissions to decide whether Amazon "tends to create a monopoly" with dynamic pricing. Amazon discloses nothing about its technologies to the public. What we see is, (1) Different prices for different users; (2) The conflict of interest with the merchants Amazon.com hosts, as Amazon serves both as a host and a reseller; (3) Amazon has an access to other merchants' traffic and prices, and is able to diminish their chances to compete with the service.