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Comment by ethbro | Hacker News Reader

If this is true (and I suppose Amazon's the only one who really knows, absent a supplier orchestrating a test), then I can't believe there wouldn't be grounds for a class action lawsuit.

Because, crucial, Amazon also comingles reviews for the same product.

I'd assume they have boilerplate in their legal agreements that waive rights to do so. But it seems blatantly obvious that if I put a novel item on Amazon, attract great reviews for its high quality, get comingled with counterfeits, have my reviews bombed by pissed off customers, Amazon has materially injured my business through no fault of my own.

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Amazon comingles _reviews_ for _different_ similar products.

This is the thing that really annoys me. It doesn't seem that technically difficult (aside from the migration pain) that recognizes product:seller as a primary key, rather than just product.

They're already swimming in reviews. So I can't see them not getting more than they're losing by empowering customers to torpedo bad sellers.

Of course, this would also mean fundamentally changing their logistic practice, which is probably why they aren't interested in doing it.

This has been discussed here in the past. If you look at the FBA program they explicitly charge extra to not co-mingle your inventory.

This is not true. They offer a service where they will add an FNSKU label to your products for .20/unit, which will mean your items will not be co-mingled. But as a seller, you can also apply the FNSKU to the items you send in and not be charged the additional .20/unit. It's up to the seller how they want to do it, but it's not a mandatory charge, just a convenience if you want Amazon to do it instead of yourself as the seller.

> If this is true (and I suppose Amazon's the only one who really knows, absent a supplier orchestrating a test)

This is true, and Amazon admits it. Co-mingling is a large part of their delivery platform.

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