[hnuser847]

> You pay these fees so the products aren't cheap.

Except they are, otherwise consumers wouldn't use Amazon. Whenever I want to buy anything, I check Amazon first. 9 times out of 10 it's the same price as every other retailer with the added benefit of free shipping and free returns. If that wasn't the case, I would have no reason to use Amazon.

[pahkah]

> Whenever I want to buy anything, I check Amazon first. 9 times out of 10 it's the same price as every other retailer with the added benefit of free shipping and free returns.

That's the problem! The issue is that Amazon forces sellers to raise their prices elsewhere, so that Amazon is the best deal for a shopper. But if Amazon didn't have the power to do that (if it didn't have a monopoly as the gateway to online shopping) then other retailers would be able to lower their prices.

That's the "tax" referred to in the article. By inflating prices across the board, but still ensuring that they're the least expensive option, Amazon retains customers and increases profits. Individual consumers choose it because it's the best deal, but the system as a whole loses out because prices are higher than they "should" be.

[hnbad]

I'm a consumer who uses Amazon for 90% of their online shopping and let me tell you: I'm not doing it because Amazon is cheap. In recent years more often than not, Amazon isn't actually the cheapest option except for the occasional deal for a subpar product they want to remove from their inventory (but these would be cheap in brick and mortar stores too). Even the deals are largely bogus: "Prime Day" largely exists to buy Amazon equipment at a more reasonable price point and the rest of the time the deals are either for "stocking fillers" (i.e. the kind of stuff you'd find in the discount bin at the supermarket) or noname white label dropshipping products you can barely tell apart from the real deal until they arrive.

I don't use Amazon because it's cheap. I use it because it's convenient. I can do 99% of my non-groceries shopping on Amazon and I get 30 day free returns on most products and next day delivery for some of them, not to mention free shipping on most things I buy (or near-free shipping if you consider the cost of Prime).

What's been pushing me away from Amazon recently is that they're not very good (or even increasingly worse) for some categories of products and in many cases search results are cluttered by Chinese dropshipping products to the point I can't find trustworthier brands at all or for categories I'm less familiar with have to do research to figure out which brands actually exist outside of Amazon's Chinese dropshipping hell. And again because of the free returns (and in the case of non-free returns the A-to-Z guarantee still often resulting in free returns or full refunds) this is not a cost issue but more about the reduction in convenience.

Mind you, I live in Germany and German Amazon is likely different. But Amazon is still the biggest online retailer here despite not being the cheapest. Arguably it still maintains the illusion of being the cheapest because of the free shipping (if you pay for Prime) and the constant barrage of "deals".

[midnightclubbed]

And that is why this case is being brought. Amazon are requiring that the price on Amazon is the cheapest price, even if the retailer would like to sell it on their own store (or eBay, Walmart, etc) for cheaper. If it’s sold on Amazon you won’t see it cheaper elsewhere.

[jononomo]

You don't realize that the price could be cheaper.