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Amazon Is Kicking All Unauthorized Apple Refurbishers Off the Site (vice.com)
In a new agreement between tech giants Amazon and Apple, shoppers will soon see a selection of the latest Apple products on Amazon.com. This is not good news for everyone. Motherboard: John Bumstead is a computer refurbisher who, every year, saves thousands of laptops from the shredder. He buys MacBooks en masse from electronics recyclers, fixes them, then sells them on Amazon Marketplace or wholesales them to vendors who do the same. Friday morning, Bumstead got an email from Amazon informing him that he'd no longer be allowed to sell Apple computers on the platform, thanks to a new agreement between Apple and Amazon that will only allow "authorized resellers" to sell Apple products.
"As part of a new agreement with Apple, we are working with a select group of authorized resellers to offer an expanded selection of Apple and Beats products, including new releases, in Amazon's stores," the email says. "You are receiving this message because you are currently selling, or have previously sold, Apple or Beats products. Your existing offers for those products will soon be removed from Amazon's online store in the United States. Please contact Apple if you would like to apply to become an authorized reseller on Amazon." As the email notes, this is part of a new agreement between two of the largest companies in the world that will allow Amazon to sell new Apple products around the world; in exchange, Amazon agreed to let Apple pick-and-choose who is allowed to sell Apple products on the site.
"As part of a new agreement with Apple, we are working with a select group of authorized resellers to offer an expanded selection of Apple and Beats products, including new releases, in Amazon's stores," the email says. "You are receiving this message because you are currently selling, or have previously sold, Apple or Beats products. Your existing offers for those products will soon be removed from Amazon's online store in the United States. Please contact Apple if you would like to apply to become an authorized reseller on Amazon." As the email notes, this is part of a new agreement between two of the largest companies in the world that will allow Amazon to sell new Apple products around the world; in exchange, Amazon agreed to let Apple pick-and-choose who is allowed to sell Apple products on the site.
This is why we hate monopolies.
In the internet sales business, Amazon has effectively become a monopoly.
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
How is this even legal under Right of First Sale?
The machines were sold legally, bought legally from their prior owners, and therefore his property to sell.
Apple can't legally say what you're allowed to do with your own property, and unless he's claiming these are new out of the box machines and not refurbs, on what legal basis can they deny him this right?
Amazon sells plenty of used things, so they can't claim they don't allow that.
What is so magical about a refurbished Mac that Amazon and Apple can legally collude to prevent the perfectly legal sale of a used machine?
This sounds like bullshit to me.
Except that there is no monopoly here. These refurbishers are still free to market their product on any other platform up to and including eBay.
Except Amazon is now 49% of all online sales. That means, it's as big as all of the other retailers-- combined.
At 49% they have considerable monopoly power. Not as much as 100%, a complete monopoly, but not negligible.
Are you really saying that eBay is about to go under because Amazon?
Unless somebody stops Amazon: yes.
I'm pretty sure that Amazon gets to choose what products are listed in their store, just the same as any brick and mortar gets to choose what goes on their shelves.
You may be "pretty sure," but if they have monopoly power, then no, they don't. Or, they shouldn't: that is what antitrust laws are about, and a monopoly making a deal to only sell one vendor's (more expensive) product is exactly why we have antitrust laws. Read some history.
What are you advocating for here, compulsory product listings from randoms who switch out fans and disks?
I am pointing out that monopolies are bad and destroy the free market.
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
I saw this kind of thing coming for years, on their platform. A long time ago, I used to do a lot of selling via the original "Amazon Auctions" service. It was more or less a direct eBay competitor, where any individual or business could start listing whatever used or new products they wanted to sell, with auction bidding.
Then, that disappeared and all of us were herded to Amazon Marketplace instead -- a service that demanded you list your items for sale at fixed prices, but did help you determine the optimal sale price at least. (It would tell you if identical products were currently listed by other sellers, and if your price was below all of theirs or not. If you were willing to sell at the lowest price on the site, they'd promote your listing to people as such.)
Then, I kept seeing Amazon revising the Marketplace, catering more and more towards big businesses and large volume sellers. You started having to create listings in kind of an inventory grid, that looked totally out of place for an individual selling a few items at a time as a side gig to make some extra cash.....
Finally, they added so many rules and restrictions on sellers, it became unreasonable for the "little guy" to even bother with it. (Essentially, you got kicked off Amazon as a seller if you didn't agree to give any buyer a full refund for just about ANY reason. They could buy your product, switch it out with a defective/worn out and dirty version of the same one, and ship it back for a full refund claiming "Product was not as advertised." They could claim your perfectly good product was non-functional and get irate with you as soon as you tried to email them back to help them troubleshoot it. Again, you had to give them the refund and eat your original shipping costs to mail it to them. And if this nonsense went on a few times within a couple month period? Your percentage of satisfaction dropped to below their acceptable levels, even if you happily handed out all those refunds and lost money trying to sell your stuff. And you'd risk suspension for not keeping up your metrics.)
Since then, they've been pedaling Chinese counterfeit versions of everything from shoes to iPhone chargers -- and only apologizing when someone like Apple catches them in the act, red-handed. Then, Amazon claims "We fixed the problem!" as they move on to the next high volume seller who wants to give it a try. So of COURSE they're gonna cater to Apple on this one. They don't want to get branded the bad guy....
Hopefully, Apple will continue to push on this, and get Amazon to stop selling all the shabby "Genuine Apple" Chargers that overvolt your laptop, Batteries that last 6 months, Adapters that are barely (or less) compatible (or just plain shoddy), cables that break, etc.
That has gotten SO bad that I don't recommend anyone looking for those items to look on Amazon. It really is THAT bad.
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