Amazon used an algorithm to essentially raise prices on other sites, the FTC says

Blackout, 7 months ago

If you manufacturer a product and sell it on Amazon and your website, but give your site a lower price, Amazon will push lower your listing ranking and crush your sales. My business has gotten warning messages telling us to consider fixing our prices when we've done that in the past. They are violating anti-trust laws left and right and should be penalized and broken up. It's ridiculous they can argue that since they don't have more than 50% of the market they can't be a monopoly. They sure can destroy your business like one.

tesseract, 7 months ago

You ought to send those emails to the FTC, since Amazon has deleted their own communications despite instructions against it.

LallyLuckFarm, 7 months ago

“As a result of this criminal act, Amazon’s license to operate within the U.S. has been suspended until executives can provide the communications they were legally ordered to preserve,” said an FTC spokesperson while smiling wryly in my fever dream where laws matter.

madmaurice, 7 months ago

Why would the FTC even use Signal for communication?

kitsuneofinari, 7 months ago

The FTC didn’t use Signal, Amazon did though for internal communications. When FTC started their investigation, Amazon quickly used the features of signal to delete all their internal communications because they were too spicy for the public and the FTC.

sqgl, 7 months ago

I would have thought the FTC would know how to save the conversations.

madmaurice, 7 months ago

Oh… I somehow understood the article as if Amazon used Signal to communicate with the FTC… Yeah that makes more sense…

LallyLuckFarm, 7 months ago

Amazon employees were using signal to coordinate anticonsumer policies and then destroyed the records, which the FTC had ordered them to preserve. At least, that’s how I read it.

admiralteal, 7 months ago

Genuine question since the article doesn't mention it -- how does the AP know conversations were destroyed? I would assume a properly-designed, E2E encrypted app like Signal wouldn't leave obvious evidence of shredded conversations.

My guess is it is based on testimony from some of the involved parties that they had these conversations and then later the chat histories were gone? But I'd like to know more.

Moreover, do we know the conversations were destroyed AFTER they were ordered to preserve them and not just routinely destroyed?

LallyLuckFarm, 7 months ago

My answer would be that the AP is just reporting the claims made by the two parties, rather than knowing that they were destroyed - that’s the usual approach from the AP. I agree there’s likely no “smoldering trail” in any logs that an encrypted system like Signal might be able to furnish, but I also am not read up on what kind of reporting requirements they might have. If they have to do something like SMS carriers where “a message was sent at x time on y date” logs exist then there’s investigatory potential. But again, not really my strong suit.

There’s probably some testimony or interview that we’re not privy to that lends credence to these claims by the FTC, hopefully it will be made public as their efforts progress.

Moreover, do we know the conversations were destroyed AFTER they were ordered to preserve them and not just routinely destroyed?

Can’t say. My own anticapitalist leanings notwithstanding, none of the reporting on Amazon’s corporate behaviors would lead me to believe that they are pro-consumer or unwilling to break the law in furtherance of avoiding a heftier punishment.

douglasg14b, 7 months ago

So… Throw them in jail? Make them accountable? Revoke the companies ability to do business till the records are provided?

Then again, that’s just fantasy because the laws don’t matter if you’re Rick/big enough anymore.

LallyLuckFarm, 7 months ago

I would like to non-sarcastically point you to my top level comment in this thread ❤️