As you know, Black Friday is currently in full swing on various e-commerce sites. without surprise, Amazon occupies a favored place among consumers Hoping to do well in this period. But numerous lawsuits filed by US regulators against the e-commerce giant are trying to prove that Amazon did everything to keep prices high.
Indeed, the Seattle firm is currently facing three legal breakups. The company is charged with enforcing policies and practices. limit the prices that a competitor charges on and off its platform. Of course, all this will depend above all on Amazon’s position as the world’s leading e-commerce company. According to antitrust regulators, this is Amazon will set its own pricing rules in violation of antitrust laws.
Amazon shuts up third-party sellers to keep prices high
The first two complaints by the California and Washington DC attorneys general allege that Amazon has high prices in the US. penalizing third-party sellers. They specifically mention the costs imposed on third-party vendors to present their products on the American giant’s marketplace. Indeed, thousands of third-party sellers Benefit from storage capacities and extensive logistics network (including delivery).
In addition to these fees, vendors also share a portion of the sales profit with Amazon. Add to this the advertising expenses required for sellers to hope to rank higher in search results on Amazon. These are the famous sponsored listings you see everywhere on the site.
Therefore, to offset all these costs, third-party vendors, have higher prices than on a competing platform or their own site. But in 2019, Amazon removed its policy that prohibits third-party sellers from offering lower prices on other platforms. However, according to the testimonies of several sellers, a perverse influence emerged.
Illegal settlement lawsuit between Amazon and Apple
And then, of course, there’s this 3rd high-profile hearing just days ago. According to this lawsuit, Amazon and Apple signed an illegal agreement to limit the number of third-party sellers authorized to list Apple products on Amazon. The main effect of this would be: limit price competitionand in parallel Hugely increase the prices of iPhones, iPads and on the partner e-commerce site. Additionally, Amazon reportedly received a guaranteed discount on wholesale Apple products for selling directly to consumers.
According to the details of the complaint, there were close to 600 third-party vendors offering Apple products on Amazon in 2019. By the time the two companies reached this agreement, only 7 remained.. At the moment it is difficult to know why these sellers stepped aside. We are aware that Amazon has several viable tools to exclude third-party sellers from its platform, such as violating user policies or selling counterfeit products. Again, It will be necessary to reach the development of the essay to learn more about this point.
Source : CNET
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