> Amazon's Fair Pricing Policy lets it remove the Buy Box (the "Add to Cart" button), or even suspend a seller, if they're offering their item cheaper elsewhere.

This kind of abusive practice needs to be banned in whichever countries it's still legal.

You can't really aspire to improve the situation if such things continue to be legal.

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runako 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Isn't this like Costco requiring manufacturers to offer SKUs at Costco that are not sold anywhere else? Or mattress stores offering to match price knowing full well that the SKUs in their store are not sold elsewhere?

This policy feels like incentive enough for Chinese manufacturers to not build behind a single brand, so the policy will not apply. Materially the same product, different SKU under a different brand name.

Feels trivially easy to get around this policy.

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phyzix5761 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Why should it be illegal? Its their platform. If enough sellers don't like it and leave then Amazon will have to change their policy. There's several other platforms people can sell their stuff on.

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ornornor an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Yes, because “free” market deregulation has worked out so well for consumers over the last 30 years.

“Don’t like the monopoly? You’re free to go elsewhere. No wait, there is no elsewhere. Oh well, I guess you must like it here then since you keep coming back. “

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Sparkle-san 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Because it's monopolistic and hinders other competitors from entering the marketplace which harms consumers in the longterm.

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tt24 2 hours ago | parent [-]

In what way is it monopolistic? Amazon has many competitors

	▲	Sparkle-san an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Are they really competing if they can't have a lower price than Amazon?

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enragedcacti 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Because its a collective action problem. Being on Amazon is the least bad option for any individual business even though they would all be better off if they left simultaneously. IMO a primary purpose of market regulation should be to counteract these types of problems so that the market can move itself out of a local maxima and become more efficient overall.

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etatester 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

It's already illegal in EU and UK

	▲	tt24 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		This is not even remotely a response to the question asked by the comment you’re replying to.

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zer00eyz 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Everyone keeps talking about dynamic pricing.

But these sorts of contractual limits on a vendors pricing elsewhere should be illegal.

Walmart does this as well: https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/pepsico-walmart-hit...