Quote:
Originally Posted by tempest@de
Just out of curiosity, is it normal for the government to intervene in the procedures of a private company? Can the government dictate how a company deals with their customers? How so?
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It can happen in a number of ways and is different for different countries. For example, in the US:
There is usually a specific regulatory agency that has oversight of this domain. In this case, I think it is the FTC. For them to investigate, they will need to receive some threshold of customer complaints.
Another way is through the court system. If someone manages to bring a lawsuit against amazon for this problem and actually win, the verdict will represent a legal baseline for future behavior of companies in this context. More likely, Amazon will find a way to dismiss these suits or settle. Occasionally, the consumer can win: This has happened in EU before - see
https://the-digital-reader.com/2016/...ital+Reader%29
It is also possible for the government to pass some bills that define/modify laws that apply to this domain - usually this takes significant lobbying efforts. The result usually means the corresponding regulatory agencies will evaluate whether the businesses adhere to these laws after they become applicable.