[nabilhat]

This isn't about Amazon's retail inventory. This is inventory owned by vendors, held in Amazon's care. Think about how this would play out in a consignment shop.

In the case of a no fault accident like a fire, paying back a different amount might be negotiable. A customer causing loss of a product on consignment might or might not have a pursuable compensation path. Under these conditions, the consignor still has a duty of care for their consignee's inventory while it's in their possession. Negligence contributing to loss from external cause tends to undermine negotiation of liability.

A consignor's own processes breaking a consignee's product is none of those things. Attempting to lowball repayment of loss entirely due to the consignor's own equipment and activities should be laughable. Successfully doing so with "show us your books" while actively competing with consignee's product shouldn't be possible without substantial regulatory influence on competing markets to constrain alternatives. There is no reasonable, functioning marketplace where this is feasible.