CNN: Amazon will no longer dictate how sellers price their products
Folks, please let me know if there is already a dedicated thread for this, but CNN is reporting that Amazon will no longer require that prices here are cheaper than elsewhere, due to antitrust concerns.
Great news for those of us with other sales channels, IMHO.
Amazon will no longer dictate how sellers price their products
By Ahiza Garcia, CNN Business
Updated 2 hours ago Mar 11, 2019San Francisco (CNN Business) - Amazon sellers just got a little more freedom.
The e-commerce company will no longer prohibit its third-party sellers from listing their products on other sites for less than they do on Amazon’s US site.
The change comes amid concern that the stipulation, called price parity, could be in violation of US antitrust law.
Amazon confirmed the policy change, which took effect Monday, but would not comment on it.
Senator Richard Blumenthal had called previously on the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission for an investigation into antitrust violations and how they could affect the prices that consumers pay for goods.
“Amazon’s price parity provisions may raise prices for consumers both in the short term and in the long run,” he wrote in letters to the DOJ and FTC in December. “Relatedly, Amazon’s price parity provisions may work to block the emergence of more efficient online marketplaces that might offer consumers lower prices on their favorite goods.”
In a statement to CNN Business, Blumenthal said he welcomed Amazon’s decision, but that he is “deeply troubled that federal regulators responsible for cracking down on anti-competitive practices seem asleep at the wheel, at great cost to American innovation and consumers.”
(…snip…)
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@papyrophilia thank you for sharing this.
Interesting. I wonder if antitrust concerns hitting all the big American companies in the EU and the growing antitrust sentiment here in the United States has anything to do with it?
Or is Amazon conceding this to conceal something even more anti-competitive?
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They’ll just continue to squelch your listing visibility if you dare try to charge more here than elsewhere, just as Walmart is doing to their sellers (except it sounds like they outright DELIST listings there when they find a lower price elsewhere).
but several reputable news sources (CNN, Axios, USA Today) are reporting the same thing. It’s unlikely we’ll see an official announcement from Amazon. Bottom line is nothing will change as far as sellers are concerned, imho.
marginally related, today i got an email from amazon to my personal website email address about adding Amazon Pay to my website…my personal website is less than a blip on any measure of internet visibility yet they are apparently aware of it…
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This permission to list for less on other sites probably doesn’t help me personally since most buyers are willing to pay more on Amazon anyway. If Amazon is going to give sellers more price freedom, I’m more interested in permission to raise prices for quality product to elite buyers.
And without violating Amazon’s price parity policy against pricing too high. I want to be one of those booksellers with permission to sell on the last page of every listing page at the highest price without drawing undue suspicion from Amazon and the IRS and with much better description comments too. To let buyers know they can a good deal for the highest price. (Insert smiley)
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I have always thought this was of debatable legality, so I’m not surprised Amazon has made this change – however much of a change it actually is.
Old: You must not price higher than you do on other sites, or than other sellers do.
New: You must not price a lot higher than any sellers do on any sites.
bunga bunga!
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Curious that they did this after Bluemental mentions it and Warren calls for their break up… CYA at it’s best.
Beth
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so bottom line, what does this mean in today’s world of pricing of products? fair, isn’t there, it’s competition and supply and demand!..thoughts and or corrections?
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I have never seen them actually enforcing this.
The biggest problem related to the Marketplace Fair Pricing Policy are the constant High Pricing Alerts for random products, which are impossible to get fixed without opening a case over every single ASIN and waiting weeks for a resolution.
Also, Amazon is deactivating my Express shipping options, completely ignoring the fact that I am an international seller.
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This was a political and PR decision.
IMO Amazon gave up nothing.
It was not enforcing price parity, per se.
Others have posted on Fair Pricing and its effects.
Few have posted on the other shifts in Amazon policies which have lessened the need for this rule. The continued efforts which make this site inhospitable to RA, and liquidation and other b-goods, where price parity is most likely to be violated.
Amazon’s critics were also Bezos’ political allies, and he gave them what they asked for at no cost to Amazon.
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sure…but Amazon can and will restrict the BUY BOX
