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It’s funny to me that people look at the wild runaway success of the American experiment and conclude that it needs more cronyism like every other country.

Please feel free to implement whatever unfavorable policies you like in your own nations. You are welcome to further drive down your GDP per capita if you’d like. That’s not what the US is though.

by mgrunwald_7 hours ago|

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This specific policy mostly benefits Amazon and its shareholders.

If you think this exists for your benefit, please feel free to bask in the illusion of your wild runaway success.

by gpt53 hours ago|

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But it doesn’t. If it was true prices in the EU would be lower. But the EU is by far and large more expensive, even after accounting for VAT.

by mgrunwald_1 hours ago|

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The issue is that those policies drive prices up globally, and the article touches on that exact point. Sellers have to absorb Amazon's fees while being required to keep the same price. As a result, their sales outside of Amazon have to factor in those expenses, which drives up prices for those products in general. Even if someone could sell that product at a lower price outside of Amazon, they won't lowball themselves and would rather improve their own margins.

Then, in the EU, you have to factor in fluctuating currency exchange rates and sales tax/VAT set individually by each country. This is another issue altogether.

by Gormo9 hours ago|

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It's insane that it's legal for a major marketplace platform to prohibit vendors from using their platform to engage in manipulative price discrimination?

Online stores should be forced to allow manufacturers to use their sites as free advertising platforms to expose consumers to their products, while incentivizing them to actually complete the transaction someplace else?

Should brick-and-mortar stores not be allowed to offer price matching either?

by mgrunwald_8 hours ago|

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You would have a point if not for Amazon's exorbitant fees which it expects to be absorbed by the seller and then requires that seller to set the same prices everywhere.

This is clearly manipulative and is regulated outside the US.

by Gormo5 hours ago|

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Can you cite some specific examples of fees imposed by Amazon that are unnecessary or non-standard in comparison to the rest of the industry?

by mgrunwald_31 minutes ago|

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You have all the info you need in the article. Technically, Amazon's basic commission is ~15%, and that is in line with other marketplaces.

The issue is that when you pay only that basic referral fee, you won't make a lot of sales. You have to pay more to actually make those sales, which amounts to ~46%. Advertising, fulfillment, and other fees. You have to pay for all of this while being required to keep your price "fair," so you have to raise prices on other platforms to stay afloat.

You could just ignore selling on Amazon altogether, but in the US that's rather unrealistic at this point, and they know that.