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Originally Posted by ApK
The issue is then that the largest, wealthiest retailer can afford to keep paying the wholesale price and lose money or give stuff away long enough to force smaller competitors out of business, and then as the only reseller left they can demand lower wholesale prices, and they can raise their retail prices as high as they want.
That's considered an unfair, anti-competitive practice. The rules are there to try to make them compete by more consumer- and market-friendly means rather than by laying siege and starving everyone else out.
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In the US, there is a whole separate organization dedicated to policing company vs company competitive disputes.
It's their job to investigate and arbitrate if possible, penalize if necessary.
With all the whining over Amazon pricing on books and everything else it is a safe bet that if they haven't acted, the have found nothing actionable.
Here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal...of_Competition
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The Bureau of Competition is the division of the FTC charged with elimination and prevention of "anticompetitive" business practices. It accomplishes this through the enforcement of antitrust laws, review of proposed mergers, and investigation into other non-merger business practices that may impair competition. Such non-merger practices include horizontal restraints, involving agreements between direct competitors, and vertical restraints, involving agreements among businesses at different levels in the same industry (such as suppliers and commercial buyers).
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The FTC puts out its mission by investigating issues raised by reports from consumers and businesses, pre-merger notification filings, congressional inquiries, or reports in the media. These issues include, for instance, false advertising and other forms of fraud. FTC investigations may pertain to a single company or an entire industry. If the results of the investigation reveal unlawful conduct, the FTC may seek voluntary compliance by the offending business through a consent order, file an administrative complaint, or initiate federal litigation.
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Of course, the FTC only deals with *actual* predatory pricing activities, not hypothetical smokescreens and made-up assumption.
That said, they accept consumer compaints so anybody who *knows* Amazon engages in predatory pricing *should* drop them a line. It's free, fast, and easy.
http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/contact.shtm
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Your complaint, comment, or inquiry may help us spot a pattern of law violations requiring law enforcement action. It also may help us recognize and tell people about bigger trends affecting consumers.
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Show the strength of your convictions and your evidence!
Call in the feds!
