Amazon sellers are marking products as ‘collectible’ to get around price gouging rules

-
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Amazon has suspended thousands of third-party sellers for price gouging during the COVID-19 pandemic, but sellers have found a loophole to avoid detection when raising prices: labeling their products as “collectibles,” even if there’s no conceivable way they could be.

Take this Bowflex dumbbell set, which my colleague Casey Newton encountered while browsing Amazon. Before it sold out in mid-March, Amazon had been selling the weights for $279. This week, the only available weights were from 20 sellers who were offering the dumbbells for between $899 and $1,275 (with free shipping). All had listed the item as “collectible.” The automated systems that detect price gouging appear not to monitor products if their condition is listed as...

Continue reading…



source https://www.theverge.com/21273383/amazon-price-gouging-collectible-loophole-dumbbells-hot-tub

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

In a world first, China lands a spacecraft gently on the Moon’s far side

-
Image
This evening, China became the first nation to land a spacecraft gently on the far side of the Moon, according to China Global Television Network America . A Chinese robotic lander and rover, which launched from China in early December, descended into a crater on the side of the Moon that’s always facing away from Earth. The touchdown marks a significant technological feat for the country, and puts China in an elite category of spaceflight achievement all its own. The landing is part of China’s Chang’e-4 mission — one of a series of planned missions to explore the lunar surface. Prior to this program, China sent a lander and a rover to the Moon, making it the third country to ever softly land on the lunar surface. That lander, part of the... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/2/18165807/china-change-4-mission-lunar-lander-rover-moon-farside
Read more

Snap suspends two anonymous messaging apps after cyberbullying lawsuit

-
Image
Images from Yolo’s now-removed App Store listing. | Image: Yolo Technologies Snap will suspend two anonymous messaging integrations from Snapchat after a lawsuit sought to hold them responsible for a teenager’s death, the Los Angeles Times reports . The lawsuit was filed on Monday by Kristin Bride, the mother of a teenager who died by suicide in June after being bullied on the two apps. “In light of the serious allegations raised by the lawsuit, and out of an abundance of caution for the safety of the Snapchat community, we are suspending both Yolo and LMK’s Snap Kit integrations while we investigate these claims,” a spokesperson for Snap said in a statement. Representatives for the two apps, Yolo and LMK, did not immediately respond to The Verge ’s request for comment. “We are suspending both Yolo and LMK’s Snap... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2021/5/12/22431883/snap-inc-snapchat-anonymous-messaging-qa-lawsuit-teenager-death
Read more