Amazon Just Got Slapped With a $1 Million Fine For Misleading Pricing (recode.net)

Posted by msmash on Thursday January 12, 2017 @02:00AM from the steering-clear dept.

Some deals are too good to be true. And, for Amazon, they will cost the company. From a report on Recode: A Canadian enforcement agency announced today that Amazon Canada will pay a $1 million fine for what could be construed as misleading pricing practices. The investigation centered on the practice of Amazon displaying its prices compared to higher "list prices" -- suggested manufacturer prices (MSRPs) designed as marketing gimmicks to make people think they are getting a deal, even though it's often the case that no shopper ever pays that price. "The Bureau's investigation concluded that these claims created the impression that prices for items offered on www.amazon.ca were lower than prevailing market prices," Canada's Competition Bureau said in a statement. "The Bureau determined that Amazon relied on its suppliers to provide list prices without verifying that those prices were accurate."

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Re:Govt wants free money by David_Hart · 2017-01-12 02:23 · Score: 5, Interesting

Uh...you broke Law 365, section A, code D! Now we get a million dollars! Muahahahah
Laugh all you want, but there is a bit of validity to the complaint.
If you compare Amazon.com (US) to Amazon.ca (Canada) you will see that Amazon.com is like a superstore, with tons of choices and multiple price points for new, used, refurb, etc., and Amazon.ca is like your corner convenience store, you're lucky if you have one choice and it may or may not be marked up higher than retail. Yes, consumers should comparison shop but it could be confusing for less experience online shoppers.