This is simply not surprising coming from a company that literally defines anti-trust, anti-consumer, and heavy monopoly abuse. It should be broken up into hundreds of companies.
Dude won monopoly
We really need a functioning IRS, FTC and SEC. Just won't happen if repugs are constantly elected.
No, what we really need is to end capitalism, not pin our hopes on one team or another when both exist to uphold the very system enabling this bullshit (hint: their agencies are never going to work for you).
Man, fuck taking any step in the right direction eh? Let's just hope for the entire world to change instead of hoping for a reasonable change that is a big step in the right direction.
"Can't have anything if it isn't perfect"
Ah, yes, incremental change and playing within the rules set by our oppressors, that's worked so well ..checks notes... never.
Lulling the population in to a false sense of security, but more importantly - comfort, is exactly how you not only maintain the status quo, but how you enable fascism.
But sure, to those who are privileged enough not to already be personally impacted, I'm sure voting for team blue feels like a real win.. 🙄
https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/10/14/liberalism-and-fascism-partners-in-crime/
Union wins weren't incremential change for the betterment of worker conditions...?
You really should check the dates on all those achievements... They weren't granted from the beginning of even the young US, nor all at once.
It is ironically your gatekeeping of "progress" that holds back the gains you want to see because of your contempt at the only path proven effective. Sad.
Socialism isn't a switch we flip. We cannot magic away the current systems of power. Like it or not, most people are too dumb, self centered, or just plain busy to consciously change the systems they deal with. It CANNOT be done by telling everyone the world has to be radically different.
Does it have to be radically different to be equitable? Yes. Is that one of the next 20 stops on the way to an equitable society? NO! You cannot jump to the peak of a mountain simply because you can see it on a clear day.
Pretending the previous power structure has magically evaporated simply because you've pulled a revolution is EXACTLY how every socialist movement gets turned in to fascism. Stop feeding that ignorant mindset that we do not have to deal with existing power structures and powerful. We ALWAYS have to deal with existing power structures. Completely. Even literally killing off the old to avoid their toxic influence creates a new power structure with capital punishment powers that not everyone will remotely agree with.
Again, your ignorance to how the real world works is alarming. Fix your perspective or continue to hinder progress. The choice is yours.
I mean capitalism is literally enabling the fossil fuel industry to continue to ramp up production, while we are heading into a climate apocalypse. It's too late for steps.
"We can't have a revolution against capitalism until after we address all the symptoms of capitalism individually!"
No need to strawman; you already made a good point in the first half of your comment.
wait, I thought that it was covid and supply chains and such and actually that the profit motive encourages them to lower prices because competition and so on
You're forgetting one thing, Amazon has no real competition. Do you have a cloud service that makes you profit hand over fist so that you can dump that money into a loss leader service like amazon delivery?
No?
Well then they're going to undercut you to the point of zero profit margin to suffocate your business.
eBay all the way, boys and girls.
What’s even wilder is that Amazon made no profit for the first 20 years of its existence, something the Feds claim makes Amazon even more dangerous as they spent considerable time building their network and have now turned on full money making mode.
That was just creative accounting so they wouldn't have to pay tax.
Oh... this huge pile of revenue? That's not profit. We're reinvesting it into logistics and executive salaries. We lost money this year. -Amazon
I'm surprised that there are still people who are surprised about this price hiking algorithm. Have you never seen weirdly fluctuating proves on Amazon before?!
I’ve seen the price go up just by putting it in the basket.
I remember an article ages ago that showed that Amazon, undoubtedly a monopoly, was on the right side of the law because of the "consumer welfare standard".
This was back when they were in growth mode and still unprofitable, but it seems obvious with this and their now record profits that they no longer pass that test. Time to break it up.
That's exactly why I don't understand people defending Steam just because right now they are only using their monopoly against the developers but not against the users. One day that will change and move will have seen it coming.
Same with Google abusing YouTube creators for years but only now when they start pushing against adblock people look for alternatives.
Too many people are just lazy and complicit
Valve isn't publicly traded company, so Gaben is a BDFL.
Who knows what happens after him. But sure, if there is any other game provider with comparable service, nobody will complain.
It's just there aren't any
Well I didn’t think that they LOST money using it!!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
WASHINGTON, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Amazon.com (AMZN.O) used a series of illegal strategies to boost profits at its online retail empire, including an algorithm that pushed up prices U.S. households paid by more than $1 billion, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission detailed in a new court filing on Thursday.
... Amazon used Project Nessie to extract more than a billion dollars directly from Americans' pocketbooks," the FTC said.
Amazon spokesperson Tim Doyle said the FTC "grossly mischaracterizes" the pricing tool and the company stopped using it several years ago.
Amazon paused the algorithm during its Prime Day sales events and the holiday shopping season when there was more media and customer attention on the online retailer, the FTC said.
The FTC called Nessie's algorithm an "unfair method of competition" because it manipulates other online stores into raising prices, allowing Amazon to do the same.
In the complaint, the FTC noted that Amazon does not allow other big online stores such as Walmart.com to sell on its platform.
The original article contains 661 words, the summary contains 167 words. Saved 75%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
"Amazon extracted $1 billion of wealth from Americans through secret price aising algorithm."
aaah, innovation™
wow they might get a slap on the wrist and a 50 dollar fine for this.
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
