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Germany Orders Amazon To Stop Taking Advantage of People Who Can't Spell 'Birkenstock' (qz.com)
Germany has barred Amazon from drawing in online shoppers who misspell iconic German sandal maker Birkenstock in their Google searchers. "Amazon reportedly won business for common Birkenstock misspellings by booking variants like 'Brikenstock,' 'Bierkenstock,' and 'Birkenstok' in Google AdWords, so that they produced search results for shoes sold in Amazon.com," reports Quartz. From the report: According to Reuters, Birkenstock turned to the court because it feared shoppers might unwittingly buy shoddy counterfeits, which could damage its brand reputation. "For us, Amazon is complicit," Birkenstock chief Oliver Reichert told German magazine Der Spiegel, according to Reuters. Birkenstock first walked away from Amazon.com in July 2016. Besieged by counterfeits and rogue merchants, the company said it would no longer supply products to Amazon for U.S. customers starting Jan. 1, 2017. "The Amazon marketplace, which operates as an 'open market,' creates an environment where we experience unacceptable business practices which we believe jeopardize our brand," David Kahan, Birkenstock's CEO for the Americas, wrote in a memo at the time.
A year later, Kahan denounced Amazon in a lengthy memo for attempting to get Birkenstock retailers to sell it their inventory, even though the company had explicitly removed its sandals from Amazon.com in the U.S. "I share in no uncertain terms that this is unacceptable and will not be tolerated," Kahan wrote. "[A]ny Authorized retailer who may do this for even a single pair will be closed FOREVER."
A year later, Kahan denounced Amazon in a lengthy memo for attempting to get Birkenstock retailers to sell it their inventory, even though the company had explicitly removed its sandals from Amazon.com in the U.S. "I share in no uncertain terms that this is unacceptable and will not be tolerated," Kahan wrote. "[A]ny Authorized retailer who may do this for even a single pair will be closed FOREVER."
u deserve to get counterfit shit
I've seen counterfeit Samsung chargers, there is probably other stuff.
Except this is fake because he's not nearly that clever. Just how does a Billionaire wind up in prison? Moron lol.
Alibaba is owned by some sleazy Chinese
They sell counterfeits
Amazon is owned by an Outstanding American Super-Billionaire who told us he won't sell counterfeits
As stated, the shoe maker banned all sales from Amazon. What is Amazon supposed to do? Be a policeman for a company that refuses to do business with them?
This looks like typical German anti-American jingoism at its finest. If a European company were doing the same thing, they wouldn't bat an eye.
"Amazon reportedly won business for common Birkenstock misspellings by booking variants like 'Birkenstock,' 'Bierkenstock,' and 'Birkenstok' in Google AdWords"
Slasdot editors are evidently unable to properly misspell Birkenstock.
Really, the court ruling is idiotic. If Amazon cannot book those words, some counterfeiter will. And what permutations, exactly, counts as a misspelling? What about other names, where there are many legitimate spellings?
That said, Amazon has really shot itself in the foot with it's 3rd party marketplace. It is increasingly difficult to sort out the crap, the potential crap, and the legitimate products. Personally, and precisely for this reason, I order a lot less from Amazon than I used to.
Enjoy life! This is not a dress rehearsal.
I honestly can't spot the difference.
Wow, it's so good I can even tell the difference in the first variant!
We now don't give a f* what you think, dear BS CEO (pun intended).
Yours sincerely,
BS Retailers
Wear real shoes people, they protect your toes.
Germans hate Americans so much.
This is what slashdot has come to ... I'm pretty sure that slashdots best moment was the 9-11 coverage. It actually showed what community/social media could do. Oh well... get off my lawn!
Zoid.com
Come on... Anyone can spell Birkenstock incorrectly!
iz how vee say goodbye in Austria, DOCTOR JONES!!!
You have to admit that those two spellings are very close indeed.
Those shouting like nazi to close down shops retailer selling online a SINGLE pair!
Why is it shoes and cosmetics are obsessed with price fixing? We had this debase with grey marketing many times before.
It goes like this - you are not allowed to sell that pair of shoes for less that $80. Most countries ban this anti competitive practice.Cameras watches and i Phones are also price fixed to extents, including controlling spare parts.
Price fixing means you - the consumer pays more, and probably geolocation price fixing as well. Authorized re-seller is just a code word to control prices though treats of dealership cancellation, which is why Birkenstock made that promise.
You see real outlet stores have to pay for shopfronts and sales staff And the other rule is they don't want alternative choices displayed next to theirs. Lastly franchise license fees can go off to an untaxed tax haven, mostly.
Amazon devalues brand names - really simple. No storefront means consumers get a cheaper price for a standardised product, while Amazon rakes off a slice. Physical store sales slump, some go out of business, brand awareness declines.You wont see Coke and Pepsi displayed in the same outlet if they have their way.
The bit about fakes is just noise and makeup. Amazon wants to greymarket supply it cannot get, and cannot induce retailers to sell.
I think any brandname vendor who refuses to sell openly should be hit with a sales tax, say 100%, before state tax is applied.
Interesting but very confusing summary.
In Germany all commercial sellers have to register with the tax office. They get a ID and have to pay VAT. Foreign sellers have to do the same when selling goods in Germany via Amazon. Still most Chinese sellers neither register nor pay VAT. That's clearly tax fraud and an offence. Since Amazon doesn't check if the Chinese sellers have a valid German tax ID if they wan't to sell their goods in Germany, Amazon is aiding the tax fraud. It's time that Amazon is held responsible for that.
germanicuckistan... full of illiterates
please, put an end to it and perish already
sandals made with large grain cork and wax? good for about a year then it rots.
So Birkenstock does not supply or Authorize sale of its brand through Amazon but see lots of footwear available with multiple offers. They could be authentic just gray not thru authorized channels or knockoffs made 3rd shift in cheap foreign country in same factory or nearby with lower quality. If gray tough luck for BS someone found in market and reselling. If knockoffs then Hope BS has stronger case. What is curious is why Amazon advertising if no support from BS? Are the gray stores or knockoffs supporting? Or Amazon trying to pressure BS into an arrangement? Seems knockoffs should offer some recourse for BS but why doesnâ(TM)t BS procure the misspelling ads?
The Birkenstock crowd has a rep for being the laid-back hippie Earthmother types. This guy sounds like he's engaged in a scorched-earth battle with Amazon and is willing to burn down anyone else who gets in his way.
The Birkenstock crowd has a rep for being the laid-back hippie Earthmother types. This guy sounds like he's engaged in a scorched-earth battle with Amazon and is willing to burn down anyone else who gets in his way.
No, he sounds like a guy fed up with unsatisfied consumers who bought "beercanstocks" thinking they were authentic, which will damage a reputable brand and product.
And if the manufacturer allegedly stopped selling valid product to Amazon US customers a year ago, no wonder he's pissed. Amazon hasn't done jack shit to deter counterfeiters from selling knock-offs. There's a fucking Birkenstock Amazon store which features their logo, valid photos, obscene prices (one pair had a $130 - 817.78 price range?!), and plenty of reviews warning people about fakes.
Even hippies have their limits. Everyone does.
I'll buy a lot of authentic birkenstock sandals from them, legitimately.
then i'll open up a store on amazon selling them at higher prices...and make easy money.
and nothing birkenstock can do about it - first sale doctrine in the US protects me, and my business, from that
Thanks birkenstock!
Is Birkenstock a variant of Birkenstock?
If you stop ad words for one then stop for all. Neither should Birkenstock be able to use any.
Sandal scandal?
So the first misspelling "Brikenstock" was misspelled back to no misspelling in the summary, the readers got confused, the matter got properly commented, and... that's it, right? No editor ever skims through commentaries to check out for blunders, no reporting mechanism, no nothing?
I guess it's news for nerds that don't track bugs.
Man, just how could you mess up this copy&paste? Some auto-correcting got triggered while replacing the left and right double quotes with vertical single quotes?
Congratulations, you've made my porn file.
New category: exactitude porn.
Typical denizen: He (or she) who hast not yet completed the first chapter of Ur-Nammu for Dummies.
What constitutes a 'virgin' exactly? How do I know if I'm a virgin?
What constitutes 'following' exactly? Coincidences and the Meaning of Life
What constitutes a 'widow' exactly? I lost the love of my life in my 20s — but I can't call myself a widow'
Note that this little problem persists. There are rather complex rules (and a lot of paperwork to file) a woman's husband goes off to war and never returns. (The paperwork situation is better if the entire offensive was a mass debacle, worse if a two-man scouting party deep into weakly-held enemy territory.)
For the entire third act of Cast Away, Tom Hanks interacts weirdly with his ex-widow ex-wife.
What constitutes an 'ex-widow' exactly?
What is an 'electron' exactly?
Interpretations of quantum mechanics
Hint: brush off your favourite 1d19 and give it a spin.
The weird thing is, because of Hamming and Shannon's Prediction and Entropy of Printed English we actually have a pretty good idea of exactly what small permutations and combinations of "Birkenstock" lie in the shopping network's Birkenstock catchment basin.
Furthermore, it would not be a difficult exercise (as these things go) to train a DNN as a shopping keyword spelling corrector.
A 19-layer DNN would likely be far more generous to Birkenstock than any human judge.
———
Bezos: "But your honour, this shit-box 19-layer DNN was training using a Google TPU consisting of 28 MiB of on chip memory, and 4 MiB of 32-bit accumulators taking the results of a 256x256 array of 8-bit multipliers."
Judge: And your point is?
Bezos: On what fucking planet does an 8-bit multiplier qualify as 'exactly'?
Judge: Oh, I see your point.
Judge removes wig, sets on bench.
Judge stands up, removes robe, tosses it onto the floor.
Judge pulls out smartphone.
Judge: Siri, book me on the next flight to Tibet, there's been a sudden change of career.
Siri: Oh, bother, not another one.
Ex-judge: What did you just say?
Siri: I just said that 2012 was an excellent year for saffron.
Ex-judge: So what?
Siri: Well, one wouldn't want to invest in the wrong colour of self-imposed exile ...
Ex-judge: Who can fucking tell the difference [glances at Bezos, who is already gloating like a pig in warm mud], uh, who can distinguish one fuh, ah, fine saffron robe from another?
Siri: You'll be pleasantly surprised what you can learn to distinguish after waking up at 0300 in a small, austere room for two straight years with the same todo list every darn day.
Ex-judge: Oh,
Amazon reportedly won business for common Birkenstock misspellings by booking variants like 'Birkenstock,'
Maybe I'm blind, but I can't see any difference in those two highlighted words... Heckuva good summary there, Beau!
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
The situation is a bit more nuanced, and I think it is possible birkenstock is more concerned about non-counterfeit items. Specifically from 3rd party resellers.
There are small resellers which buy from liquidators, and sell the items at a lower price. Think about Ross stores, but just some random seller on Amazon. This creates a messy situation, for the manufacturer (birkenstock), and of course the buyers.
1. There are items from actual authorized resellers (or the manufacturer directly)
2. There are items from 3rd party resellers, who bought at a discount (end of season, black friday, etc)
3. There are items, which are authentic, but defective. (returns, misprints, typos, etc). These are problematic, since they could not be marked such, but sold as new.
4. There are counterfeit items.
I think category 3 is the worst for the brand. You'd get a defective item which should not have been sold, and will blame the brand when it fails early, or when it looks a bit off.
And I think category 2 is bad for keeping the "premium" prices. An item that is out of season, and was supposed to be off the shelves will be competing with the new offerings. They are both real, and authentic. So why would people pay $120, instead of getting the $60 one?
Anyway, there is a lot of concern for the manufacturer, so for many brands, Amazon just restricts the sale. (new release Disney items for example).
You know, you don't get any extra points for following me round to gainsay every single thing I comment-about
When your mom told you that you're special and that everyone remembers you, she was lying.
lucm, indeed.
"variants like 'Birkenstock,' 'Bierkenstock,' and 'Birkenstok'" ...
That first mis-spelling is "B-R-I-Kenstock". Mind you, you're not the only one, it's taken me 10 minutes to realise what was going on
Don't blame me, it's usually 2 in the morning when I post