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Apple and Amazon Face Antitrust Scrutiny in Germany Over 'Brandgating'
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No they are not. They are specifically challenging the idea of competitive exclusion. Amazon is both a marketplace (AM) and a vendor (AV) in that marketplace. The German's are saying AM can't make a decision that excludes other vendors from competing with AV. I think they have a point.
The arguments of counterfeit product prevention don't stand. Amazon has a responsibility to ensure they aren't selling counterfeit products. Absolutely they do. However, the solution can't be exclude other vendors in the marketplace and reap the rewards by selling products yourself. That's BS and that's what the Germans think is happening.
The solution to counterfeiting is more robust policing of the vendors and products on the marketplace. Yes, that's harder, and more labor and cost prohibitive. It's also part and parcel of business ownership. But it doesn't adversely affect 3rd party vendors who are doing no wrong.
The whole point of this, is Europe is consistently going broke, they run out of money and think ... who can we pull a few Billion from ... hmm, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Google, yea ... hey have excess money ... lets make up something and then use our own courts to drive this ... they win every time ... These companies should stop selling there and let the Europeans import the products and pay triple the price ...
I think you can designate authorized resellers, however, setting the price...not sure about that. However, Apple will never ship it's products to an unauthorized reseller. So having said all of that not sure exactly where the issue here.
I wish Amazon had a slider similar to the Prime one that would only display results of sales from either them, a manufacturer and/or verified (re)sellers. There is so much crap being sold on Amazon nowadays that you have to weed through pages of garbage before finding something legit. I find myself shopping far less on Amazon now and buying directly from big-brand stores or manufacturers themselves. Paying for shipping again sucks, but I’d rather do that than deal with Amazon-induced headaches and a waste of my time.
Considering how much problems Birkenstock had with counterfeit shoes on Amazon, I don't understand the purpose of this investigation.
I will agree with you that they don't necessarily have to be banned but they should not have the right to sell for a higher price than the MSRP, and this happens quite often. It's gouging consumers and ripping them off. Often this happens when some common products are out of stock around the web so these Amazon sellers inflate prices. Cheating customers is way worse than being anti-completive.
I beat you to it and didn’t waste my life reading something I don’t understand. But I did waste my life replying to you. 😅
Amazon is part of the free market too. Given that we're talking about luxury tech gadgets and not something essential, I think Germany should just let it happen. It's a fishy practice, but if Apple wants to slightly ruin the used market for their own devices, fine.
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There are legitimate reasons to sell used devices. And idk what you're talking about because I've never seen people trying to sell such commodity new items for higher than what Apple sells them for. Seems like not a very clever scam. Unless you mean scalping of release-date phones, which is different, but I still don't mind it happening.
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From stories like this one, and the responses to it, I’ve learned one valuable lesson over recent years: no matter what bad thing happens, it’s Apple’s fault.
I even heard that Apple is secretly behind all these Chinese knockoffs. The reasoning is fuzzy but I got it from QAnon so it must be true.
I even heard that Apple is secretly behind all these Chinese knockoffs. The reasoning is fuzzy but I got it from QAnon so it must be true.
I hope that's a /s. Because otherwise it's a bit like not leaving your house because you might be run over by a bus kind of a solution
It will impact 3rd party vendors who are doing no wrong though depending on the outcome, Amazon may decide to increase their fees they charge sellers to make sure they don't lose any profit by having to deploy more anti-counterfeiting tools. This could seriously eat in to the margin these 3rd party sellers have. It's Amazon's platform and they'll do their best to make sure they don't lose any profit on it.
Brandgate helps reducing piracy, so it is a good thing. But too much brandgating is anti-competitive? Is apple banning other resellers from selling apple stuff on amazon, or is it amazon banning them? As far as I am concerned, I would want to buy Apple products from authorized resellers, not some random Joe. So Amazon and Apple are actually protecting consumers interests here. Why does Germany have a beef with that? If Amazon doesn't want to be an ebay, that's their call.
"Brandgating" NEEDS to be a thing on Amazon. Amazon isn't eBay. ONLY authorized sellers of a specific product should be selling that product. One thing that could help with this is Amazon being much more stringent on WHO they allow to sell on their site.
Retail arbitrage needs to be banned from Amazon, Walmart, and Sears completely. There are so many fly by night sellers on Amazon that pick up products in closeout sales, store closings, etc then turn around and flip them on Amazon while completely undercutting legitimate sellers who have established relationships with the brands they represent.
Saying that, I highly doubt Amazon is going to do any of the above meaning it will continue to be the wild west, customers will continue to receive fake products, and legitimate brands/sellers will continue to be harmed in the process.
Retail arbitrage needs to be banned from Amazon, Walmart, and Sears completely. There are so many fly by night sellers on Amazon that pick up products in closeout sales, store closings, etc then turn around and flip them on Amazon while completely undercutting legitimate sellers who have established relationships with the brands they represent.
Saying that, I highly doubt Amazon is going to do any of the above meaning it will continue to be the wild west, customers will continue to receive fake products, and legitimate brands/sellers will continue to be harmed in the process.
Why would anyone take the chance and order an Apple product from an unknown independent reseller off Amazon? I believe there is too much risk in it being counterfeit.
I won’t even order a bottle of supplements unless it comes directly from Amazon — just too many shenanigans I read about.
I won’t even order a bottle of supplements unless it comes directly from Amazon — just too many shenanigans I read about.
Platform costs rise, platform owner passes cost on to tenants. That's simply business since... well, since forever. Eliminating 3rd party vendors altogether to claim "fighting potential counterfeiting" is not. Eliminating 3rd party vendors to "claim fighting potential counterfeiting" AND then taking over said business yourself? Yeah, that's going to get scrutiny. Rightfully so.
Regardless of the decisions made, there will be an impact on 3rd party vendors. 1. Status quo: 3rd party vendors could lose the opportunity to sell. Go out of business. 2. Amazon aggressively pursue counterfeiting: Could pass cost on to 3rd party vendors.
3. Revert back to the old days: Counterfeiting runs rampant. Consumers lose confidence in marketplace.
There are no scenarios that are benign. Any decision made is going to have an impact.
Except that is not what was being mentioned. The Germans are basically saying "We no longer want to protect you from fake sellers who sell counterfeit chargers that will end up killing you". That is ALL they are saying.
End of!
Yes it does! It is also about banning dodgy and fake companies, or do you think that people dying from counterfeit chargers is a good thing?
You do if those 3rd party components do not work as they should and end up hurting/killing someone. That has happened MANY times in the past with other phone makes and Apple are just trying their best to protect their users from the same.
Sorry that offends you.