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Amazon Just Got Slapped With a $1 Million Fine For Misleading Pricing (recode.net)
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."
Uh...you broke Law 365, section A, code D! Now we get a million dollars! Muahahahah
As long as people value the ephemeral bargain of the markdown, instead of the actual product value, this retail trick will never die.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
as they made $1,000,001, it was worth it.
Fines mean nothing if the fine isn't more than the company made from breaking the rules.
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."
If that's the price the suppliers are giving them, why wouldn't it be accurate? Nobody forces people to buy from Amazon, there's an entire world wide web out there where they can compare prices and make their own determinations. Heck, there are even sites that will do the comparisons for you. Likewise, nobody ever pays MSRP on anything anyway; this sounds like a bogus complaint to me.
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
Canada is a notoriously uncompetitive market. Gouging is the norm here.
Take the U.S. Target retailer for example. They are a chain well known to Canadian border shoppers. They finally came in under the assumption that they could profit simply by having a Canadian presence, even though they offered inferior content at a premium over what Canadians could get across the border (even after currency and duties are considered).
They failed miserably, and pulled out after big losses, but it speaks to the general mindset of the Canadian retail market.
I'm all for protecting the consumer, but this sounds like that Canadian agency had a $1m budget deficit and they wanted to cover it fast. Sure, MSRPs are stupid and it would be nice to get rid of them, but how is the retailer supposed to know the manufacturer/supplier has them "inflated". Are they supposed to go all-Sherlock for each item they sell?
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
Why did God create WASPS (white Anglo-Saxon Protestants)
- Somebody had to pay retail.
So brick and mortar stores do this ALL THE TIME.... they never cared. But Amazon does it. BAM!
I've spent a lot of time in retail and - news flash - everybody does that. When Kroger has a "plus card" deal they always show you the "savings" vs. the MSRP, even if that's not what the item was priced at before the sale. Publix does that with their 2-for-1 deals - you get two items as the MSRP of one. You will save good money doing that, but it's not exactly half price.
This is normal. Once again, Canada shows why government must, of necessity, be reined in.
Do you have ESP?
Let the 3rd annual protectionist games begin, and may the odds be ever in your favour.
The consumers have already fined themselves for being misled by such a trivial thing.
Car dealership sucker price yes some (dumb) people do pay that.
I
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Before the TechDirt revealed "intelligent massless robotic agents" is the new monicker for software, the market valuation of Amazon went up by 20% and the top management was able unload more of their stock options just in time.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Every single sale item at a grocery store lists MSRP for comparison.
I wonder how many millions in profit the made off the deceptive pricing?
If that's the price the suppliers are giving them, why wouldn't it be accurate? Nobody forces people to buy from Amazon, there's an entire world wide web out there where they can compare prices and make their own determinations. Heck, there are even sites that will do the comparisons for you. Likewise, nobody ever pays MSRP on anything anyway; this sounds like a bogus complaint to me.
You are wrong. People rely on this information, which is why it is useful to do it. Amazon could and should easily show what the model normally sells for, but they only have an incentive to do it if forced to by regulation. Like how supermarkets should show price per unit even though anyone can do math if they take the time. In real life, you occasionally need regulation in order to incentivize behavior which is useful for society even though it hurts the person who does it. Otherwise you have lots of fraud, contracts are unenforceable, the economy becomes a whole lot less efficient, etc...
A lot of government regulations are implemented badly, and some are bad ideas, and there are too many--but there are really good reasons for some government actions.
Real lawyers write in C++
It seems that the original manufacturers are lying, so why is Amazon held to be at fault here?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
We are fining a company because we are protecting people so fucking stupid that they think and MSRP means something real.
The problem with the world is that we keep insulating these people from their retarded decisions. Nothing good will come of dumbing the world down to the capability of the lowest common denominator.
There are zero people in the world that we want to breed who were fooled by this. Zero!
Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
Yes, that's exactly how Canadian law works. The Manufacturer can suggest a price, but you will be fined millions of dollars for telling the customer what that price is. Granted, MSRP is generally a marketing gimmick, but it's very much a suppression of speech that would have pitchforks coming out here.
You mean that $10,000.00 LAN audio cable which is discounted to $5995.00 (and produces audio better than being there in person) is marketing hype?
If that's the price the suppliers are giving them, why wouldn't it be accurate?
Because it is nothing more than a suggestion from the supplier. It has no actual relationship to real market value.
Nobody forces people to buy from Amazon, there's an entire world wide web out there where they can compare prices and make their own determinations.
So according to you fraud is ok because nobody *has* to buy from Amazon? Weird argument you have there. Sorry but retailers shouldn't get to make any and all claims about their product regardless of veracity. This includes lying about the "market" value of the product to make it seem like it is a better deal than it actually is.
I have never even seen jewelers sell their wares for less than 50% off anywhere in Canada... They always say it's a sale, but in fact, the sale price *is* their everyday price.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
A sporting goods chain, Forzani's, was hit by a $1.7 million fine. In there also it mentions a clothing chain, Suzy Shier, being fined $1 million.
http://infofranpro.wikidot.com...
Sears was recently fined over tires.
http://www.autoserviceworld.co...
Here's one more from Micheal's, an arts and crafts store, for $3.5 million!
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2...
Sears has previously been fined over pricing on other products but I can't find a source. In fact, many retailers seem to have issues related to advertised and actual pricing, and the Competition Bureau, rightfully, takes them to task for it.
Retailers in Canada, Amazon among them, should know better. The history and fines have been set.
The market doesn't give a flying fig about the rules you put in front of it. The market will always respond freely. Constrain it too much and "alternative" markets show up. The alternative market isn't really alternative, it is just freedom expressing itself.
God: "I don't leave footprints!"
I buy a lot of crap from Harbor Freight and most of it is worth not just every penny, but more than I paid for it. Not all of it, mind you, but most of it. Especially as Sears implodes, if you go anywhere else for hand tools, you're nuts. But they have taken to employing this practice themselves, and comparing their prices to some wholly invented competitor price. Sometimes they are actually comparing their junk to Snap-On tools, and then claiming you're saving the difference between their sale price, and the price of a high quality product where you can get warranty replacements off a truck near you, without having to drive to HF. I wouldn't mind so much if they were comparing to some other cheaply made tools, but they're comparing to the best. That's a load of hot cockery.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
This seems like a case of a liberal government wanting to be the sole controller of taking and sharing of profits via taxation.
Wait, what? This has been standard practise in every retail industry for decades. Why is Amazon getting dumped with this fine? It's certainly a deceptive practise and needs to come to an end, but how can they single out one seller when their competitors have been doing it for so long? This is just absurd. They should have passed a new law outlawing the practise first. I would love to see something like it in the States as well. You can't just spontaneously decide that something is illegal that so many people have been doing for so many years.
While they're at it, can they make selling things for x.99 and such illegal, too? This frustrates me to no end, and is very clearly a deceptive marketing practise.
That'd be like if I were fined 1 cent.
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