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.

Comments

No monopoly here.

[Anonymous Coward]

These refurbished are free to set up their own storefront and sell their product. No one is owed the traffic that Amazon provides.

This is tantamount to a craft brewer complaining he can't put his beer in Walmart's aisle coolers.

Re:No monopoly here.

[iggymanz]

yeah and that's why Amazon doesn't want the risk of someone buying unauthorized refurbishments, who'd stand behind a guy working out of his garage? I wouldn't and you wouldn't either.

there is no problem here, plenty of other places that guy can sell his things to those who like that stuff.

Re:No monopoly here.

[MachineShedFred]

Lots of people get by with this kind of thing on eBay and are quite happy to do so. I don't see eBay kicking off so-called "unauthorized" resellers, and they aren't exactly the small guy.

Don't start quoting statistics that are wildly made up unless you want to look like an idiot. Amazon doesn't have the power to cut anyone off from 99% of anything, except maybe Amazon-exclusive customers (of which I'm sure there are incredibly few).