this post was submitted on 03 Jun 2026
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Amazon literally does this if you sell on their platform as the manufacturer or just at all. My source: Hi, that’s me, and I can confirm this is standard practice at Amazon and I’m the manufacturer of my own product.
Hell, Reggie from Nintendo of old just stated that the entire reason Nintendo was not on Amazon for like 3 years because Amazon asked Nintendo to basically burn bridges with alllllll of their other suppliers, just like what you mentioned.
And in my opinion it should be illegal. What do you think?
Genuinely why? Why do you think you have the right to any specific marketplace?
Do you really think that Amazon should be allowed to set prices outside their marketplace? That's wild.
You are allowed to not market yourself at amazon, i dont see the issue really
Amazon is one of the largest online retailers in the world. If they force prices on suppliers to get a better deal than anyone else, that's between extortion and price fixing.
Sounds like not shopping or selling at amazon is the actual solution to the problem. I havent bought a single item of them in my life, so why do you?
So as long as you don't shop at Amazon, it's fine if they do illegal shit.
Got it.
Is that a 'yes' on you being a customer at amazon?
For the same thing sold on their marketplace, yes. Literally you are voluntarily agreeing to use a private marketplace, you should agree to all their rules or just stop using that marketplace.
Amazon isn't a public service. They aren't a Farmer's market run by the city. They aren't a sidewalk. If you would like a public version of Amazon that doesn't have those restrictions and would be cheaper for literally everyone, advocate for that. But until a public alternative exists then yes, Amazon can and should impose whatever rules it wants. Alternatives will appear if it becomes too restrictive and the platform will die.
That's insanity. Under those terms, most suppliers would be at the whims of platform owners.
Microsoft asking Valve for a 50% cut? Sure. Google delisting a website because the owner criticized their CEO? Absolutely. Amazon telling you to sell at a loss or not sell at all? Why not.
Congrats, you found one of the many problems with the concept of capitalism.
Yes. That is how all that works. Because they are all private companies and it is voluntary to use their services.
If you think those services should be neutral, congrats, you're advocating for communism. I think communism is pretty cool and there should be a state-run online marketplace that is entirely non-profit. But you seem to think you should or could force companies to be that public entity. That's not only not realistic and not how the world has ever worked under capitalism, but it's just simply a bad idea. Look at the USPS for why you should not have a private entity perform a public service.
I disagree. There are plenty of success stories of companies being forced by governments to act in the best interest of consumers, from adopting USB-C to removing lead from gasoline.
You are conflating very different things here, I'm afraid.
I'm really not. You want a neutral marketplace that just provides a service without a profit motive. That's what it comes down to. Because any service that requires a profit will naturally protect that profit, and that includes excluding suppliers that are actively sabotaging it.
No, I want marketplaces to operate in good faith and following the law. Don't think that's so much to ask.
Materially & historically speaking it absolutely is too much to ask, sooner or later someone inevitably gains enough wealth to rig the game, the only way anyone in history has ever managed to get anything resembling good faith out of "marketplaces" has been at gunpoint
There is nothing illegal being done by steam kiddo. And 'good faith' is defending themselves against sabotage, which is what ubisoft is suing for the ability to do here.
That's for the courts to decide, "kiddo".
Nice exercise of brand loyalty, but irrelevant in this scenario.
They did in the 1980s with walmart, kiddo.
Incorrect, this is an 'exercise' of explaining a very basic fact of capitalism that has been happening longer than the word 'capitalism' has existed. This policy is the default for all stores on Earth.
You are very clearly out of your depth here, and very much wrong, so maybe drop the patronizing tone a little bit.
Unless you can quote the exact precedent, I'm going to take the Sherman Antitrust Act over whatever you say.
Marketplaces can set the prices of the items sold at their locations. They cannot set the prices of items outside of them. Doing so is price fixing, plain and simple.
Absolutely, stop using Amazon. Except what's the alternative? They've wedged themselves in that space, and bought out any other competitor. So either they get forced to compete with themselves (by breaking the company apart) or they adhere to anti-monopoly laws where they're not allowed to influence other prices as part of their agreement.
Aliexpress, walmart.com, ebay.com, wayfair.com, any manufacturer's website. Or the actual global leader in the space, Alibaba which dwarfs Amazon's entire marketplace with over twice the users and easily a thousand times the suppliers.
Or, if people think private companies should be neutral, like a public service... PEOPLE SHOULD FUCKING ADVOCATE AND ORDER THEIR GOVERNMENTS TO PROVIDE A PUBLIC SERVICE.
It is infinitely easier and better to get the government to do things for you than it is to force a private company to do things for you.
Afaik Walmart does the same.
EBay is a different service as is Wayfair.
Your own website as the manufacturer doesn't have the reach of these other platforms. (in an age of SEO and AI searches it really doesn't have to be that way).
The strongest argument here is in favor of Aliexpress. Which isn't without issues and heavily lobbied by amazon to have even more issues in the US.
Platform A has a 40% fee and requires price elsewhere to be the same. Manufacturer X sells their own product on their own website, at +40% their price.
This is bad for buyers and competition. Platform A is already big and important enough that you can't skip it, and can drive up and control pricing generally.
If the requirement were not there, if platform A does not offer enough plus service for the 40% margin, other platforms would keep the prices at a reasonable level. People could buy from the manufacturer at their original price.
A marketplace important enough that you can't skip it being able to dictate market conditions is how it manifests itself further as the primary player and controlling instance.
Do you want them to have a monopoly? Because that's how they are gonna get a monopoly.