Comment by lelandfe 5 days ago
> operated at a loss as a business tactic to force out competition and kill off local grocery stores
Wouldn't surprise me. I know a guy who invented a device for truckers that became ubiquitous in truck stops across the US. This would've been like 2014.
He refused to sell on Amazon, so Amazon duped his product and sold it at something crazy, like half price, until he agreed to list (at which point they dropped their competing product)
political quips with no insight or information used to be considered against the rules and removed.
Illegal in what way? They are not allowed to set prices lower than competitors or raise them at any time?
Predatory pricing is illegal in the US, but difficult to prosecute under the existing laws.
No it means it’s illegal and enforcement agencies don’t have the means and/or political support to prosecute.
> Amazon duped his product and sold it at something crazy, like half price
Pricing below an appropriate measure of cost is generally considered predatory pricing. It is very difficult to enforce this, but that doesn't change the fact that it could be illegal and a violation of antitrust laws.
It has been their practice since forever. Look up the diapers.com case.
Do you want to go up against whatever patent portfolio AMZN has?
I'm not aware of any Amazon product lines or organizations that specializes in devices for truckers. Can you provide a listing?
There's no listing. The story is made up.
While the general premise is true (big company will try to rip off small company), Amazon doesn't have the magical power to get around patent law and the economic penalties are fairly harsh, which is why most companies don't do it. And no war chest of tech patents is going to get Amazon around a patent in the trucking industry because the inventor of the trucking gizmo couldn't care less about whether Amazon patented the right to make Alexa speak in tongues.
It's possible, and likely, that Alibaba vendors decided to rip off the product, but again...patent law is a useful tool for those who use it, and Amazon can be held liable for the sales of infringing products on its storefronts.
Amazon currently sells fake fuses that have probably already killed people.
Amazon cares just slightly more about breaking the law then they about killing people.
That's because criminal prosecution and product tort liability are not meaningful deterrents.
Patent litigation is a different thing entirely. The burden of proof is lower, and the payouts are higher.
To put things in perspective, Apple, Amazon, etc., have lost patent lawsuits worth hundreds of millions over trivial aspects of their devices that are just tiny parts out of thousands compromising the phone/tablet/whatever.
It seems a lot of people on HN fundamentally misunderstand how patent litigation works.
If this trucking device actually existed, and for some reason was being sold on Amazon, and the inventor had sued, he would be living large these days off the settlement.
Yes, Amazon sellers have copied products before, but those aren't Amazon. Amazon prefers to just buy the competition (see, e.g., Diapers.com and Zappos).
huh. What's the product listing? I don't think this story rings true.
it's a known behavior of theirs[0]. sounds plausible to me.
[0]: https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/amazon-copied-produ...
It's good to ask for a link (although not good to give one if this is your friend and it may affect their relationship with Amazon that you're talking about this in public), but you can't expect people to waste time thinking about your ringing ears.
All of the replies to this comment: "The fact that I thought it was real says a lot" [0]
Such tactics sound… illegal