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Old 07-13-2014, 07:58 PM   #11
eschwartz
Ex-Helpdesk Junkie
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But ultimately, the question is: what law is Amazon actually breaking? There is no law requiring one to follow the intent or spirit of the law. The courts can recognize what Amazon is doing all they want. Unfortunately, it isn't actually against the law... so they can't do anything... other than make a law to deal with such cases.

"Law" is: making rules about what people can and cannot do.
Not: deciding that someone is being "unfair".

If the courts could just wave their magic gavel and say
Quote:
OK, Amazon is "driving prices below costs because you think you have deeper pockets and can outlast the competition is not fair game" and we don't like that. Because we made a law against Amazon doing free shipping, and even though they are obeying our new law they are doing it in an offensive manner -- this isn't what we meant to happen at all.

So let's just punish Amazon for being anti-competitive anyway.
That would be a Kangaroo Court. Perhaps by way of being a dictatorship... I believe dictators are allowed to come up with new laws whenever they want and apply them retroactively...

Unless perhaps there is a French law banning companies from legally thumbing their nose at the law?

Quote:
Originally Posted by rkomar View Post
If you're deliberately running at a loss to drive out the competition, you should be in trouble with the law. It shouldn't take guesswork to figure out whether you're operating at a loss or not.
...isn't illegal... at least not currently. Who knows? Perhaps a law will be passed prohibiting such actions. If so, any further such behavior from Amazon will definitely be illegal -- if it can be proven that that is indeed what they are doing.

Last edited by eschwartz; 07-13-2014 at 08:07 PM.
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